Idols star’s brush with death
Road rage leaves Shobede in a state of shock
Thami Shobede says he’s lucky to be alive.
The Idols SA runner-up had a close shave with death when he survived a hail of bullets following an apparent road rage incident on Sunday night.
He was travelling with his friends in Maboneng, Johannesburg, when an altercation escalated into a gun attack.
“It was like a very bad movie scene that nobody deserves to go through. We are lucky that no one got shot. Me and the guy who was sitting at the back could have been shot first because the attacker shot while we were driving away.
He said they were at the stop sign on Main and Fox streets. As they waited for traffic to clear so they could cross to the other side, a man banged the car from the back shouting at their driver: “You’re going to damage my car, move.
“Our driver answered back, ‘Tsek, you’re the one in the wrong. I’m not going to damage your car. He went back into his car and pulled a gun.
“That’s when I shouted at our driver [telling him] to drive off before the guy hurts us. He fired five or six shots and four or five hit the car.
“One of the bullets could have hit my head or the driver if it was about two inches to the left,” he said.
“We could be talking real tragedy right now. We still don’t understand why he shot at us. ‘Tsek’ is not something that would make anyone want to take another person’s life, and potentially three others.”
“Tsek” is colloquial for “voetsek”, an informal Afrikaans term meaning “get lost”.
The matter is being investigated by the Jeppe police.
Police spokesman Sergeant Mduduzi Zondo has confirmed that a case of attempted murder was opened.
“No one was injured during the shooting,” Zondo said, adding no one had been arrested for the attack.