Durban — The family of a KwaDukuza father of 11 who was gunned down near the iLembe long-distance taxi rank allegedly by a security guard are pinning their hopes for justice on law enforcement agencies.
Sihle Mbonambi, 34, was shot and killed on Friday when he went to buy food at the rank, a close relative who asked not to be named said.
The relative claimed that when Mbonambi got there the security told him that private vehicles were not allowed to park inside the rank.
“As a person who frequented this rank to buy food, he moved his car and parked it by the entrance, got out of the car, and walked to buy (the food) and that was when the guard met him with shots.
“He shot at him countless times, he even shot at him when he had fallen to the ground. One of our relatives present at the rank even shouted at the guard that he was shooting her child in her full view, that was before he fell to the ground,” the family source said. The relative alleged that the shooter then moved closer to the wounded Mbonambii.
“He walked over to him shooting him some more, in his stomach and head. We don’t have answers as to what led the guard to kill so brutally”.
He said that Mbonambi was employed and had 11 children with another on the way.
“All these children no longer have a father because of this guard.”
A witness who was with Mbonambi said they had gone to get food at the rank on the way from some errands.
“At the long-distance rank, a tall, big security guard stopped us. He said we couldn’t go through the rank, we didn’t understand why he was saying this. Sihle then drove about one metre away from this guard and parked the car on the side. Then another smaller guard shouted whether we hadn’t heard what was told to us,” said the witness.
He said that Sihle then got out of the parked car and as he was doing this, the guard approached him.
“The last thing I heard Sihle say to the guard was ‘What is the matter my brother, is there a problem here?’ We only realised when he fell to the ground that he had actually been shot.
“Before that we had seen him jumping because the security fired two shots into the ground first then after that we just saw Sihle fall to the ground and the security continued shooting at him while he was down.”
Spokesperson for the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in KwaZulu-Natal, Sifiso Shangase, described the incident as sad and uncalled for.
“We want to convey our condolences to the family of the bereaved. Let the law takes its rightful place. The security guards have a specific mandate from Santaco in areas or ranks where there is no stability.
“There are agreements that are entered into between the local association and the security company. This is normally based on the risk assessment of the situation posed by illegal operators in most cases.”
Shangase confirmed that some of the security companies were owned by those who had a vested interest in the industry.
“There are taxi operators who have diversified to form security companies that are rendering legitimate and professional security services, whose companies are registered with Psira and have a good track record and reputation. These companies have a good understanding of the industry dynamics, and for us, it will be disingenuous if we do not empower our own if they meet all the requirements as per the specifications of the work.”
Police spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo said a suspect was detained and would appear in court soon.
Daily News