EC cricket coach slain after heist
Security guard accused of killing official execution style near mall
THE Hawks are investigating the death of Border minicricket coach Sive Hlatuka at the weekend.
He died in an Alice parking lot, allegedly at point-blank range by the hand of a G4S security guard minutes after a cash-in-transit (CIT) heist on Saturday morning.
Eastern Cape Hawks spokeswoman Captain Anelisa Feni confirmed that Hlatuka, 34, died of his bullet wounds at Victoria Hospital in Alice soon after 10.30am.
Feni said an investigation by the Hawks’ Serious Crime Unit would uncover whether Hlatuka was an innocent bystander or a suspect.
The Dispatch called G4S on their landline, which was diverted to a cellphone. A man answered and asked the reason for the call.
He said brusquely: “That is being handled by the guard division. It has nothing to do with me,” and ended the call.
The Dispatch called back three times but the number rang unanswered. A Dispatch team visited the G4S offices in Southernwood, East London but the gate was chained shut. There was no sign of life and no doorbell.
Hlatuka’s girlfriend Siphelele Mraxisa, 24, said her boyfriend died at about 10.30am after trying to protect her from being assaulted by the guards.
Mraxisa, a Lovedale student, said he was shot after a brief argument with the guards. She said one guard forced him round and bent him over with his face on the bonnet of his own VW Polo Vivo, and then fired a single shot in the back of his head.
Mraxisa said the attack happened minutes after the CIT robbery.
She said that in the middle of the robbery and shootout, one of three robbers came at her and demanded Hlatuka’s car keys.
Mraxisa happened to be sitting in the passenger seat of Hlatuka’s car, which was parked outside Cash Build hardware store in the parking lot at Kwantu Mall in the CBD.
Mraxisa said she had been waiting for Hlatuka and a plumber, who had gone into the hardware store to get parts to fix Hlatuka’s mother’s leaking bathroom pipes.
Mraxisa said one robber, who was involved in an exchange of gunfire with G4S guards while dragging a cash trolley, pointed his gun at her and demanded the keys.
She told the robber the keys were with Hlatuka.
She said they left her and hijacked a nearby sedan.
Feni said the robbers fled the mall after hijacking a white MercedezBenz from a customer.
Mraxisa said a few minutes after the robbery drama two guards approached her. They dragged her out the car, and punched and kicked her repeatedly while shouting: “Don’t look at us!”
She said: “When my boyfriend came out of the store he saw them kicking me and told them to stop.”
He wanted to know what they were doing to his girlfriend and was trying to say that the car belonged to him. She said the men argued for a few seconds and then the guard shot him.
Feni said the G4S guards had gone to the mall to fetch cash from Cash Build hardware store when they were ambushed. “One of the members of G4S was exiting the business with an undisclosed amount of money when a suspect allegedly came and stole the money and his work pistol. It is alleged that the driver of the G4S then realised that there was a robbery. Consequently, there was an exchange of gunfire between the driver and the suspect.”
Hlatuka family spokeswoman Khanyisa Mrubata said Hlatuka was a breadwinner at home and had looked after his unemployed mother and five siblings. Mrubata said Hlatuka was a human movement student at the University of Fort Hare. He leaves behind a nine-yearold son. His cousin, Jerry Nqoko, is in the Junior Proteas squad.
Feni said one of the three robbery suspects was shot and wounded during the exchange of fire at the mall. He was arrested by the Hawks on his way to Frere Hospital that day.
This was after he was transferred by the Dimbaza clinic to the East London hospital.
“During the escape the suspects allegedly hijacked a Mercedes-Benz in Alice and abandoned it in the town,” Feni added.
Mrubata said they knew that the sedan was hijacked from a doctor who worked at Victoria Hospital.
Feni said the robbers then hijacked a Toyota Corolla in Alice and abandoned it in Dimbaza.
The wounded suspect, believed to be in his 30s, was in hospital under police guard, she added.
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