The rise and fall of a feared taxi boss
Mamelodi rejoices as taxi boss ‘Khekhe’ convicted for killing businessman in 2015
● Taxi boss Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela once rubbed shoulders with the likes of boxing star Floyd Mayweather, owned a nightclub and spread fear among his business rivals.
But his fall from power has been as rapid as his rise.
On Friday in the Pretoria high court, Mathibela and three accomplices were all given effective 30-year prison sentences for the 2015 murder of North West businessman Wandile Bozwana and the attempted murder of his business partner Mpho Baloyi.
Mathibela, Sipho Patrick Hudla, Matamela Robert Mutapa and Bonginkosi Paul Khumalo were also convicted of unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
Mathibela put on a display of indifference during sentencing, looking down at his cellphone as the judge addressed the court.
His rise to the top of Mamelodi’s taxi industry was meteoric.
A former executive member of the Mamelodi Amalgamated Taxi Association (Mata) who spoke to the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity, said Mathibela’s career had been paved with fear and blood.
“Khekhe was born into a family that owned a massive fleet of taxis. I don’t know how old he was when he got involved with taxis but it was from a young age,” the source said. “You can pinpoint the exact moment Khekhe became the kingpin he is today; and that is following the deaths of three of our executive members in a short period of time in 2014.”
First was Mata’s then chair Lucky Mahlangu, who was gunned down in Mamelodi East while driving home in September 2014; the following month Buang Maubane was killed. The third victim was Oscar “Patch” Letsoalo, infamous in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a Mamelodi crime lord who specialised in robberies and hijackings.
No arrests have been made in connection with these murders. At the time, Mata insiders said the deaths were linked to the expansion into Mamelodi of the City of Tshwane’s bus rapid transit (BRT) programme known as A Re Yeng.
The taxi organisation had been in talks with metro officials to avoid the violence that was seen in Johannesburg when taxi associations reacted with rage to the rolling out of the Rea Vaya programme.
“This is when things started to change [after the murders] and that is when we started seeing Khekhe gain a more prominent role within the organisation,” said the Mata source.
“He was propped up by his family, mainly his uncle Suthu Mathibela, who was the deputy chair before he was murdered. Khekhe and his uncle started making changes to the association and forced taxi drivers to pay a protection fee every week, which they said was an admin fee because of how they were running the association.”
Mathibela apparently then broadened the scope of his extortion racket.
“We found that he was also doing the same thing to spaza shops in the township that his people were also extorting businessmen who had tenders in Mamelodi,” the source said.
During this period Mathibela launched a security company, bought shares in an upmarket restaurant and was listed as a director of several companies. He was photographed with Mayweather when the US boxing legend visited South Africa in 2014.
He also received a payout from the Road Accident Fund after he was involved in an accident in his youth that left him with a limp.
Mathibela’s 2015 victim Bozwana was killed in a drive-by shooting at the N1 Garsfontein off-ramp in Tshwane. Mathibela and his gang had followed Bozwana and Baloyi from a hair salon in Sandton before opening fire on their vehicle.
Mathibela indicated in his pre-sentencing report that his family had given him two taxis to operate as a teenager and that he subsequently grew his fleet to more than 50 taxis in less than two years.
Residents of Mamelodi had been pushing for Mathibela’s arrest since 2018. One of them, Jabulani Ngobeni, said the news of Mathibela’s sentence has been welcomed with excitement because it heralded the start of a new era.
“This man and his gang made our lives hell. There are so many people who could not conduct business in the township because of him, even A Re Yeng was suspended from operating here because of him,” said Ngobeni.
Despite the murder convictions, the trial cast little light on the motive for the hit on Bozwana, who was strongly opposed to corruption in North West.
Bozwana’s brother, Benedict Bozwana, told the Sunday Times the mastermind behind the murder should be identified and prosecuted.
“The sentence is well deserved because it means they will be in jail for a very long time. But we still want to know who ordered them to murder my brother.”