A family listened in horror as their 47-year-old father was shot multiple times and left to die in his Wallacedene home on Monday night.
According to the family, Thembekile Qukula was lying on his bed in his room at about 8pm when unknown men stormed their Mtyobile Street home, ransacked the place and took cellphones from the occupants.
The suspects then asked where Thembekile was.
"We lied, saying we didn’t know and he wasn’t at home but they got angry and checked the rooms,” says a family member, who asked not to be identified.
“I heard one shouting ’nantsi lenja’ (here is this dog) and the next thing we heard a lot of gunshots.
“I wasn't sure it was really happening or I was in a dream, everything happened so fast and I was numb.
“We found him lying there with five wounds to the stomach and two in the leg.
“He was alive, he was rushed in a family car to the hospital while we waited for police.”
Sadly, the former truck driver succumbed to his wounds at Kraaifontein Hospital at around 12am.
Relatives say Thembekile had lost his job at the start of lockdown last year and was job hunting at the time of his death.
He is survived by his wife and children aged between five and 16-years-old.
He was described as a family man who was kind and always stayed out of trouble.
The incident shocked and angered neighbours, who say Thembekile did not deserve to die such a brutal death.
The residents say they now live in fear as the shooters and the reason behind the murder are still unknown.
“It is so sad and very scary that they can just barge into a house and kill a man like that.
“And our police services are failing us, because after hearing the gunshots, we went to his house.
“We phoned the police immediately but they took long to arrive,” said one resident, adding that cops only showed up at midnight.
SAPS’ Joseph Swartbooi says the circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.
“According to reports, suspects entered the house, firing gunshots at the victim.
The suspects fled the scene and are yet to be arrested,” he says.