Border mini cricket coach ‘shot execution-style’ after cash heist

THE Hawks are investigating the execution-style slaying of Border mini cricket coach Sive Hlatuka, 34, allegedly by cash-in-transit security guards.

He died minutes after a cash-in-transit heist and shootout in Alice on Saturday morning.

Eastern Cape Hawks spokeswoman Captain Anelisa Feni confirmed that Hlatuka died from a gun wound at the Victoria Hospital soon after he was shot by the guards at about 10.30am.

Feni said an investigation by the Hawks’ Serious Crime Unit would uncover whether Hlatuka was an innocent bystander or a suspect.

The security company could not be reached for comment.

Hlatuka’s girlfriend, Siphelele Mraxisa, 24, said her boyfriend had been shot after trying to rescue her from being assaulted by the guards.

Lovedale student Mraxisa alleged he was killed executionstyle after a brief argument with the guards.

Mraxisa said one guard pushed Hlatuka around 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.

She said the attack on the couple happened minutes after the cash-in-transit robbery.

In the middle of the robbery and shootout one of three robbers came at her and demanded Hlatuka’s car keys.

Mraxisa was sitting in the passenger seat of the car which was parked outside Cash Build hardware store in the parking lot at Kwantu Mall.

She was waiting for Hlatuka and a plumber who had gone into the hardware store to get parts to fix Hlatuka’s 57-year-old mother’s leaking bathroom pipes.

Mraxisa said one robber, who was involved in an exchange of gunfire with guards while dragging a cash trolley, pointed his gun at her and demanded the car keys. She told the robber the keys were with Hlatuka.

She said they left her and hijacked a nearby Mercedes-Benz sedan.

Mraxisa said a few minutes aft- er the robbery drama two guards approached her.

They dragged her out the car, and punched and kicked her 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 a guard shot him.

Feni said the guards had gone to the mall to fetch cash from Cash Build hardware store when they were ambushed.

Hlatuka family spokeswoman Khanyisa Mrubata said Hlatuka was a breadwinner who looked after his unemployed mother and five siblings.

He was a human movement student at the University of Fort Hare.

He leaves behind a nineyear-old son.

His cousin, Jerry Nqoko, is in the Junior Proteas squad.

Feni said one of the three suspects who was shot in the exchange of fire at the mall was arrested by the Hawks on his way to Frere Hospital later that day.

She said the wounded suspect, believed to be in his 30s, was in hospital under police guard.

When my boyfriend came out of the store he saw them kicking me