Pretoria - A taxi owner was shot dead outside the Centurion Taxi Association offices near Botha Avenue in Kloofsig on Thursday.
An unknown assailant in a blue Audi sped up to the association’s offices, where Frans Mnguni, 40, was parked in his black Volkswagen Polo. The assassin got out of the Audi, fired six shots at Mnguni in the car, and sped off.
While the association said it was the first time that an incident of this nature had occurred in their midst, Mnguni’s brother Godfrey blamed the taxi industry.
“This taxi industry always has things like this happening. It’s bad because now my brother is gone,” the 38-year-old military paramedic from Soshanguve said.
According to Mnguni, the association was planning a new route and he believes the killing had something to do with rivalry and ructions in the industry.
A member of the association’s executive committee said it was the first time one of their more than 120 members had been killed.
“We (the committee) were having coffee inside when we heard the shots. We ran outside to see what had happened. Some of our members outside said a car had stopped and that someone had killed Frans and left,” the man, who did not want to be named, told the Pretoria News.
He said the association was not on bad terms with other taxi associations and there were no rivalries.
“There is no war. The Centurion Taxi Association is quiet and we have no violence here,” he said.
Godfrey Mnguni arrived on the scene at about 2.30pm and was tasked with telling their mother in Mpumalanga of her son’s death.
Mnguni lived in Pierre van Ryneveld with his wife and three children.
“He was a humble man and quiet. When he was killed he was playing games on his cellphone. The police found his phone in his lap,” Godfrey said.
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Pretoria News