Cape Town - A R1 debt between two friends has ended in bloody murder.
Now a father of three is dead and his pregnant wife is heartbroken that he was killed.
Yandisa “Maradonna” Cele, 31, was stabbed to death as he made his way to work last Thursday.
His training as a security guard meant little when his armed attacker pounced.
Moments later Yandisa was lying dead on the ground, metres from his Brown’s Farm, Philippi, home.
The suspect – a devoted member of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) – handed himself over to Nyanga police and is expected to be charged with Yandisa’s murder.
Angry residents have since destroyed the suspect’s shack.
A grieving Mandisa Tokwe said she cannot come to terms with the fact that her three kids and unborn child lost their father over R1.
The 32-year-old woman says she will never be able to forgive the suspect who was once a close friend of her husband.
Mandisa said 24 hours before the tragic event, the suspect burst into her home waving a knife, demanding to see her husband.
But Yandisa was not there.
“He [suspect] then turned around and left, cursing that my husband was very lucky to not be at home,” she said.
“When my husband arrived later I explained to him what had happened and he informed me that he had owed the man R5.
“He told me he could not afford to pay him because he only had R4 and claimed that the man had refused to accept it when he gave it to him R1 short.
“He begged me to give him R1 to add to the R4 so he could pay it back to our neighbour.”
She agreed to help him out with the money when he got back from work but Yandisa was attacked before that could happen.
“It was just after he left for work late on Thursday afternoon [the following day] when kids called me to the scene where I found my husband lying dead in his work uniform,” said Mandisa.
She said she does not know how she is going to survive with three kids and one on the way.
“He [suspect] really deserves harsh punishment,” she added.
Bongani Mgqushwana, a street committee member, said residents demolished the suspect’s shack as part of their efforts to banish all criminals.
He says residents are shocked at who the suspect is because he is known as a churchly man and good friend of the victim.
“Those two men also both lived as very close friends,” he said.
Police spokesperson Captain November Filander confirms: “A 28-year-old suspect is appearing in Athlone Magistrates’ Court on charges of murder.”
Daily Voice