It was a heartbreaking scene as the wife of a Cape Town shopkeeper wept openly after his death at the hands of gunmen.
|||Cape Town - It was a heartbreaking scene as a Chinese shopkeeper’s wife wept openly after his death at the hands of gunmen on Tuesday.
Two unknown males armed with a firearm entered a shop in Mfuleni and chased the wife of the shop owner with the firearm, police said.
“The suspects returned and fatally shot her 32-year-old husband several times and fled the scene on foot,” Western Cape police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said.
Van Wyk says the motive for the shooting is unknown: “Nothing was taken from the shop. A murder case was opened...”
The couple’s landlord, who declined to be named, said: “I suspect this was just a hit because nothing was taken from them.
“His wife has told us her husband’s killer had ordered her to go out before firing shots at him.”
The man described his tenants as “a friendly couple”.
“They were robbed previously, some stuff from the shop was taken,” the landlord explained. “But this time they just came to kill, nothing else.
“It was heartbreaking to see this man lying there dead and his wife crying uncontrollably alongside him.”
On Tuesday friends and relatives of the victim gathered at the scene as police searched for clues.
A witness says two men fled the shop and jumped into an awaiting car before speeding off.
A 46-year-old neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was still sleeping when the shooting happened.
“I just came from night duty. And minutes later I heard police vehicles and people screaming,” he told the Daily Voice.
“It’s sad because now this man is going back to his country in a coffin.”
The victim’s family refused to talk about the incident.
The Chinese Consulate in Cape Town has asked the police to prioritise an investigation into the murder.
“As a consulate, it is our duty to uphold the safety of our nationals who pursue legal business and other interests in South Africa. We are in communication with the police and have asked them to urgently track down the perpetrators,” she said.
“We have provided consular support and sent staff out to the family yesterday. We do, however, see this as an isolated case and this will not affect the relationship between the Chinese and South African governments.”
Braam Hanekom, director of immigrants rights organisation People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty, said South Africa’s image got tarnished by the prevalence of such attacks on “foreign investors”.
“We call on the government to urgently intervene to curb this scourge, because it can only impact negatively on our international diplomatic and trade relationships,” he said.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Daily Voice and Cape Argus