The family of a police officer who was murdered outside his house say they are struggling to survive since his death.
Constable Lindekile Sikade was the breadwinner of his family, and looked after his elderly mother as well.
The family was speaking outside the Athlone Magistrates Court yesterday, where two men appeared in connection with his murder.
Three suspects were nabbed on Monday by the police’s tactical response team and the Hawks.
Prosecutors yesterday revealed charges against the third suspect have been dropped, believed to be due to a lack of evidence.
This left Mlangabezi Mqalo, 35, and Luyanda Thafeni, 28, facing charges of murder for allegedly gunning down Constable Sikade as he was leaving his Philippi East home for work on April 18.
State Prosecutor Ndoyana explained: “He was leaving when armed men opened fire on him and he died at the scene.”
He added: “I have received instructions from the Investigating Officer that they will be refusing bail. We do not have bail profiles of the accuseds and we will request a postponement for this.”
The pair stood quietly before Magistrate Keith Lekeur and requested legal aid representation.
Lekeur postponed the matter to next week Thursday for bail information.
Outside court, relatives of the deceased said it was hard coming face to face with the alleged killers.
Lindekile’s mother, Makhathula Sikade, 69, told Daily Voice she had been visiting from the Eastern Cape when the arrests were made.
“I feel hurt by what happened, seeing the accused brought up all the old wounds,” she says.
“But we are happy that finally there were arrests, it was eating at us, just sitting and not knowing what was going on.”
His brother, Sizwe Soguyise, 40, says the family has been going through difficult times.
“He was a breadwinner for his wife and three kids and his mother, it’s a great loss, something I don’t think the people who did this thought about.”