Sergeant murdered at home

4 Killers use Khayelitsha cop’s eldest child to lure him home from tavern

FRIENDS AND neighbours described the killing of an off-duty policeman in Khayelitsha as “painful for the community”.

Sergeant Mzuvelile Siyotula, 45, had been at the Cheap Cheap tavern, a stone’s throw from his house, when his killers sent his eldest child to tell him he had visitors at home, according to his friend, Sindiswa Siyatha.

The incident happened in Site B, Khayelitsha. Distraught family members had gathered at the home yesterday, where they were waiting for relatives from the Eastern Cape before they issued any statement. “He was kind to every one around here. You never heard quarrels involving him. He loved every child in the street,” Siyatha said.

She said the two perpetrators used his son to lure him into the yard.

Siyatha said word on the street was that the two men asked the officer for his gun and “cash in the pink bag”.

“I had just been with him the other day. This is painful for the community.”

A patron at the tavern said the two men had been there earlier.

He leaves behind his three children and his wife, who is also a cop.

Resident Michael Mhluzi had just walked out of the tavern and past Siyotula’s house when the incident happened.

“I heard two shots and I immediately ran into a friend’s house. When I looked behind I saw two men leave,” he said.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut said Siyotula was shot outside his home.

“The two unknown suspects demanded his firearm, which was left at the police station for safekeeping. They fled the scene with a (cellphone) and an undisclosed amount of cash, and are yet to be arrested.”