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Written by News Networks Service
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
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By Alex Eliseev and Poloko Tau
Letta Mofokeng slept through the gunshots. Even if she hadn't, she would never have guessed that her husband Shimmy had stumbled across a botched hijacking next door and been shot dead.
The television star and popular Soweto pub owner was the latest victim caught in the crossfire of crime, and the only words on his widow's lips are: "Cry the beloved country."
Late on Monday evening, Shimmy, 53, - brother of singer and actor Thapelo Mofokeng - closed up his Orlando East restaurant Shimmy's Inn and headed home to his family in Mulbarton. |
As he pulled up to his house, he noticed his neighbour, Pieter du Toit, was being hijacked in his garage.
The hijackers had failed to steal Du Toit Nissan bakkie and were running down the road past Mofokeng's house in Leonard Lane.
It was just after 9 P.M.
 Mofokeng drove after them. As he reached the T-junction at the bottom of his street he was ambushed. A minibus was parked at the corner. The hijackers' accomplices opened fire. Their bullets tore through his windscreen and car. Mofokeng lost control of his Kia and crashed through the palisade fence of Mulbarton Primary School.
The Du Toits had already pressed a panic button, and security officers were on the way.
They called paramedics, but it was too late.
Letta learned about the shooting when the security guards arrived at her home. Her 21-year-old daughter Masentle had heard the shots but didn't make the connection.
The hijackers dropped their spoils near the driveway of the Mofokeng home and fled with only a wallet and a set of keys.
The two items were found later in the morning inside another car that had been hijacked in the area. Shimmy grew up in Soweto and had known Letta most of his life.
The pair married on Freedom Day (April 27) in 2001 in a traditional Sesotho-themed wedding. On Tuesday, Letta looked through her wedding album, her eyes red from crying. "I am very angry. I don't know who to direct the anger at," she said.
"I've lost a friend, a partner and a pillar of strength. He was my world."
She recalled how he had been by her side during a recent 14-day hospital stay.
"He never left my side."
What makes Letta furious is that he was shot in cold blood.
"Never in my life did I think he'd be killed near his house in this way," she said.
On Monday, Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Firoz Cachalia told a press conference that statistics were showing a decline in crime in the province.
"Crime is going down until it hits your doorstep," Letta said.
Next door, Jane du Toit explained how two men had ambushed her husband Pieter in the garage. They pointed guns at him and ordered him to get out.
Pieter didn't resist and handed over his keys and possessions. But the hijackers smashed a gun over his head, causing blood to pour down his face.
Jane had, in the meantime, heard the commotion and pressed a panic button.
She said she couldn't shake the vision of her husband - who remained calm - walking into the front door with blood running down his face.
On the other side of town in Orlando East, Soweto, a throng of people offered their condolences.
With solemn faces, friends and neighbours came out of the house that served as Shimmy Mofokeng's food and beverage business.
Inside the house, Mofokeng's brother, Thapelo Mofokeng, cut a forlorn figure as he sat at a table, still reeling in shock. "He was very close to his 5-year-old son Tshepang. It won't be easy for him to understand."
Thapelo said his brother's death highlighted the need for something to be done about crime. "It's sad that nobody seems to be doing anything to seriously address the crime that is tearing our country apart. We've recently lost Lucky Dube the same way," he said. "Do people and artists need to be seen around with bodyguards in their own neighbourhoods? It is high time that crime got some special attention." |
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