Questions surround double life of slain rugby player
SPRINGBOK rugby player Solly Tyibilika was leading a double life at the time of his murder in November 2011.
This has emerged after his family told the Sunday Times that they were still searching for answers to his death — 20 months after he was gunned down, execution style, in a tavern in New Crossroads, Cape Town.
Two months before his death, Tyibilika and two friends were arrested when the police saw them cruising the streets of Gugulethu in a car with its lights turned off. An unlicensed 9mm pistol was found in the car.
Tyibilika appeared in court on October 19 2011, along with Simon Dan Shumane and Sandile Maqungu. All three were released on bail.
It was the second time that year that Maqungu had been found with an unlicensed firearm. He also had several charges against him, some of which had been withdrawn. One of them involved a hijacking in Nyanga in 2004. Maqungu also had a conviction for housebreaking, for which he received a two-year jail sentence.
A few days after he appeared in court with Tyibilika and Shumane, Maqungu was shot dead while walking with his girlfriend in Gugulethu.
Then, in November, Tyibilika was killed. Afterwards it was reported that Shumane had also been killed, but he is still alive and the charge against him for the unlicensed firearm has been withdrawn.
This week, the police said that they were still investigating the death of Tyibilika and that there had been no arrests. They denied that there was an apparent link between the two deaths.
Police spokesman LieutenantColonel André Traut said: “There is no indication that the deaths of the individuals are connected.”
Some of Tyibilika’s Cape Town connections said the Springbok had had serious discipline problems and would sometimes disappear for days at a time.
Tyibilika’s family have disput- ed that the player had any links with gangs.
“I am still angry, I must be honest, because I still don’t know why my brother was killed. If I could hear something and put together bits and pieces [to get to the answer] I’d be
We realised later he was going to collect his death bullet
okay,” his sister Linda Sithole told the Sunday Times. “It was also the way he died that made me angry. There hasn’t been a single person who came to me to spell out what it was exactly that led to his killing.”
However, she said she was consoled by the farewell the rugby fraternity had given Tyibilika.
Tyibilika’s elder brother Sinethemba, of New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, said the police had not kept the family in the loop regarding the hunt for the killers. “Not a word or a phone call has come back to us, even though the sports minister vowed that no stone would be left unturned in the pursuit of those criminals,” Sinethemba said.
Tyibilika played eight tests for the Boks.
His club, Spring Rose, has since formed a Heritage Day tournament, involving 11 other clubs, to honour Tyibilika’s contribution to the development of rugby in the region.
Sithole said Tyibilika had been eager to get back to Cape Town during a family gathering in Mthatha in the days before his death.
She said she sensed that her brother had been in danger because of the company he kept in Cape Town.
“I said to him: ‘Let’s drive to Durban with my husband for a weekend getaway. I’ll take you to your old friends and I’ll give you money for a plane ticket back to Cape Town.’ He said: ‘Sisi, I have to be in Cape Town this weekend!’
“He said he’s not even going home to Port Elizabeth — we later realised he was going back to Cape Town to collect his death bullet.”