Friends and colleagues of slain police officer Sergeant Silulami Qagana gathered at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday for his memorial service.
The off-duty cop was shot and killed in Khayelitsha near his Site C home last Saturday, while chatting with his friend Masixole Noncuncu, 33, on Solomon Tshuku Street.
A leaked police report said the cop, who was stationed at Cape Town Central SAPS (Magistrate’s Court), was dressed in civilian clothes.
He was walking to a nearby spaza shop to buy cigarettes when he met a group of young men who stay in the neighbourhood and talked to them.
The police report states: “They were standing in front of a house in Solomon Tshuku Street, Site C. A known police official in the vicinity came running towards them, telling them he was being chased.”
Minutes later Qagana and his friend were gunned down.
He was rushed to Mitchells Plain Melomed where he was declared dead on arrival, while his friend was transported to Khayelitsha Day Hospital, where he too died.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Pojie said Khayelitsha SAPS opened a double murder case for investigation.
Pojie says: “Both succumbed to gunshot wounds to their bodies in hospital.
“The motive for these killings is subject to ongoing investigation.”
The Qagana family and SAPS members gathered inside the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court and filled the corridors.
Sang
They sang gospel songs as they celebrated his life.
The sergeant’s brother Mthunzi Qagana described the officer as a doting dad of two, saying: “He had a wife and two children – a boy, 7, and a five-year-old daughter.
“He loved his family, especially his kids. He didn’t allow any bad thing to come close to them. He protected them.”
He said they were very shocked to learn about the shooting.Mthunzi adds: “A lot of people in the community would go to him and ask for assistance. He was always full of jokes, life, a very friendly man and approachable.
“We were very close, he was respectful.
“This was a shock not only to us but to the entire community.
“He looked after our family, we thought he would grow in the force.”
Qagana joined the police service in 2007, as a constable at Cape Town Central, before he was promoted to sergeant and moved to the court.
His brother says: “He has always wanted to be a police officer.
“As a child he would play cops and robbers and always played the police part, even using the jawbone [of an animal] as a gun.”