Johannesburg - A man’s body was found in the boot of a burnt out car at a park in Florida, Roodepoort, in the early hours of on Monday morning.
Police spokesman Major Mack Mngomezulu said the man was burnt beyond recognition and was found in the boot of the vehicle with his hands tied behind his back.
“It is believed that he was tied up, put in the boot and the car was then set alight,” he said.
Although the dead man’s identity was not immediately known, the vehicle’s registration indicated that it belonged to a chemical company in Randburg.
Mngomezulu was unable to confirm claims that the man was shot before he was put into the burning vehicle.
“We are conducting a post-mortem to identify the exact cause of death.”
The motive for the crime was unknown and no arrests had been made.
The burnt vehicle was parked under a large tree at Church Square Park, just metres from a children’s merry-go-round.
The interior was burnt to ashes. Only the frame of the vehicle remained on a black patch of burnt grass.
An acrid smell penetrated the moist air just hours after the vehicle was set alight.
Patrick Koopman, a resident who lives near the park, said he had witnessed elements of the crime being committed just after 3am. He said he left his house about 2am to get medication for a tummy ache at a nearby garage shop.
When he was driving back, he noticed two men in a white Honda Ballade, while a third man was lying on the back seat.
He went back inside his house, but watched from his window as the men drove slowly onto the gravel road next to the park.
“They parked there for a while before driving onto the grass in the park,” said Koopman.
“I thought they were just waiting for someone and didn’t think anything was wrong at the time,” he said.
Koopman then went back to bed, but was woken up by a loud noise at about 3am.
“I went back to my window and saw the vehicle in flames
. The car made a very loud noise when it was burning.”
He said he saw one of the men running away from the engulfed vehicle, but the second man’s clothes were caught in the flames and he was struggling to take them off.
When he eventually managed to remove the burning clothes, he threw them inside the vehicle and ran away.
“The car then just kept burning until a fire truck came to put out the flames,” said Koopman.
A woman who also lives near the park, and fears being named, recalled how the image of the car in flames was imprinted in her memory.
“I woke up when I heard the sound of screeching tyres, and when I looked out my window, I saw that a car was burning,” she said, sobbing.
“The car sounded like drums banging when it burnt. It is something I will never forget.”
The woman said she was not aware there was a body inside the car and described the crime as “merciless assassination”.
“The people who killed this man wanted to make a statement. This is an open area, they wanted people to see what they did,” she suggested.
The Star