Johannesburg - Bafana Bafana star and BidVest Wits captain Sibusiso Vilakazi has voiced his fears that criminals could be targeting soccer players after his family was held at gunpoint over the weekend.
Vilakazi was sleeping in a back room on his parents’ property in Orlando East, Soweto, when armed men broke into the main house early on Saturday morning.
Vilakazi couldn’t be contacted this morning but was quoted in other media as saying that when the armed men entered the house, they specifically asked for him.
“I was targeted specifically because they knew what they wanted. They came looking for me and they mentioned my name.
“If you look what happened to Senzo Meyiwa and now me, I think footballers are being targeted.”
But Safa spokesman Dominic Chimhavi disagreed.
He said what was happening was “totally unacceptable” but it could not be said that criminals were focusing on footballers.
“We are totally against all acts of violence and are saddened by what happened to Vilakazi, especially just after Meyiwa.
“But criminals are indiscriminate. Anyone can fall victim to them. They target everyone,” said Chimhavi.
Chimhavi said according to Gun Free South Africa, on the night Meyiwa was shot dead, 17 others were killed in the same way.
Spokesman for the Soweto police, Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela, said three men went to the house that morning.
One stayed in the car while the other two broke into the house, held the family at gunpoint and stole an undisclosed amount of cash, electrical appliances and cellphones.
Makhubela said they had opened a case of home robbery.
He too said the robberies were random.
“It was just like any other robbery. We can’t assume his robbery means soccer players are being targeted.
“There were other house robberies in the area. Criminals go for the rich and poor alike,” Makhubela said. - The Star