Taxi owner killed despite Cele’s warning

BARELY a week after Police Minister Bheki Cele warned that should a single person be killed in the taxi industry, he will close down taxi operations in the O R Tambo region for good, a taxi owner was killed in Dutywa on Monday night.

That was one of the stringent conditions on which Cele reopened the taxi routes and taxi ranks that he had ordered be shut because of taxi violence that claimed more than 60 lives in 18 months.

Cele said his warning did not only apply to taxis in the Mthatha area, but the entire Eastern Cape.

The 51-year-old taxi owner and former Uncedo Service Taxi Association (Usta) regional leaders, who cannot be named as not all his relatives have been told of his death, was shot dead at close-range by two men in full view of his wife and children at his KwaTimane village home in Dutywa on Monday night.

But Butterworth police spokesman Captain Jackson Manatha said there was no evidence that the killing was part of taxi violence.

“Two men arrived at the house of the 51-year-old man, ordered his wife to cover herself before shooting the man several times.

“He sustained several bullet wounds on the upper body and died on the spot,” Manatha said.

Police said the incident happened on Monday night at about 10pm.

“After shooting the deceased, the two armed men ordered the wife to show them where the money and a gun was kept. They managed to get the deceased’s gun, but could not find any cash,” Manatha said. —