Watching the news bulletin at her home in Pretoria, Lisa Hoko was struck by an item about the death of a Golden Arrow driver when his bus crashed after being stoned by violent protesters in Khayelitsha.
But it was only the next morning that she learnt the worst. A family member called to tell her it was her 67-year-old father, Sandile Hoko, who lost his life in the mayhem on Mew Way, losing control of his bus when service delivery protesters unleashed a volley of rocks, careering off the road and ploughing into a row of shacks abutting the freeway.
Thirty passengers were injured in the crash, two of them critically.
Speaking from the shack her father shared with her stepmother Zoliswa Dyantyi, Hoko said she was devastated.
“They’ve taken my dad, you know? Someone’s grandfather. Why him? He was a law-abiding citizen… Why him?” asked an emotional Hoko on Sunday.
She said she was more devastated because her father had been paying her tuition fees at the University of Johannesburg where she is a final-year theology student.
She described her father as vibrant and funny, a strict parent with an entrepreneurial spirit.
“He started off as a photographer in the Eastern Cape, worked as a DJ before moving to Cape Town where he ran a spaza shop from home while continuing with his Golden Arrow job.”
Hoko said her stepmother did not want to talk about the incident because she was too emotional.
Hoko said the family was busy trying to gather money towards funeral costs. Her father will be buried at his traditional home in Alice, in the Eastern Cape on August 11, Hoko said.
Meanwhile the city and provincial government are offering a R50 000 reward for information about those responsible for stoning the bus.
“The perpetrators of the violence must face the full force of the law,” said Premier Helen Zille and Mayor Patricia de Lille in a joint statement on Sunday.
“The ANC Youth League must also be held accountable for this terrible sequence of events, following their calls to target public transport as part of their “ungovernability” campaign.
“It is more than despicable to target innocent commuters using public transport and those responsible must face the most severe punishment possible under the law.”
Last week, Zille and De Lille laid intimidation charges against the ANCYL, the ANC, the ANC Women’s League and two taxi groupings – the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations.
They said that on July 27 a memorandum issued by the ANCYL Dullah Omar region was delivered to the premier’s office on behalf of the five organisations.
Zille and De Lille said the memorandum contained a threat to make the city and the province “ungovernable” if their demands were not met.
On Sunday, the ANCYL hit back saying they should bring a charge of defamation of character against Zille.
“We are a disciplined organisation. We do not promote violence or anarchy. We have never mandated any member of branch to do this rubbish,” said Khaya Yozi, ANCYL chairman for the Dullah Omar region.
He said marches were being held on the 27th of every month, “representing the closure of 27 schools”.
Yozi said no production took place in the economic hub of Cape Town, the central business district, during the marches.
He said this was what was meant with making the city ungovernable, “not removal of robots and burning of roads”.
Zille and De Lille said it was a serious reflection on the ANC provincial and national leadership that they had not reprimanded the ANCYL’s incitement to public violence.
“The only inference that one can draw from the ANC leadership’s silence is that it condones its Youth League’s incitement to violence and criminal activity. The city and the province will not remain silent in the face of such actions,” they said.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut said there had been no arrests following the stoning and the bus crash
“A culpable homicide case docket was registered. The circumstances are being investigated.”
* Anyone with information is asked to send an e-mail to richard.bosman@ capetown.gov.za or call 021 400 3355.
Cape Argus