Soccer fans shot dead in front of TV
Nontando Mposo
Independent News Cadet Agency
Two armed men attacked a group of soccer fans who had gathered to watch a match on television at a friend’s house. The brutal attack on Sunday evening left two men dead.
Patrick Mkwela, 44, was one of three men who survived.
He had been talking on his cellphone outside the house, when he was accosted by the men, one armed with a machete.
“I ran inside and tried to fight them off with beer bottles... they struck me twice on my stomach with a machete and I fell to the floor,” he said.
One of them pulled out a gun and shot his friend Thamile Njilana, 41, dead. A second man, Zola Mgujulwa, 53, was killed after being shot twice in the head.
“While we were all lying on the floor bleeding, they went through our pockets and took our phones and wallets. After they were satisfied I heard one of them say ‘we are done here, let’s go’ and they left,” said Mkwena.
The men then went on to rob another house nearby where they shot and injured one person and robbed three others.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said police were looking for the suspects.
“The matter is being dealt with as a priority.”
Lindiswa Mdlolothi, 36, from site B in Khayelitsha, is mourning the death of her partner Njilana.
She said that earlier that day he had plastered their dining room walls before going to his friend’s house around the corner to watch a soccer match.
“Our DSTV wasn’t working... that was the last time I saw him,” she said.
Around 10pm a group of her neighbours knocked on the door, and told her something has happened to Njilana.
“I refused to go with them; I could feel something bad had happened to him,” she said.
Mdlolothi described her partner as a peace-loving man, who never argued with anyone. He was an unemployed father of two boys, Esona, 4, and Anathi, 11. Throughout the visit to their home yesterday, Esona played with a photograph of his late father asking his mother when he was coming home.
Meanwhile, Mkwela said he was worried the suspects might come back to “finish him off”.
“Crime here is a big problem, but I have nowhere else to go. This has been my home for 18 years,” he said.