Durban - A taxi driver was gunned down on Tuesday night in what is believed to have been a botched hijacking in Glenwood, the same area where DA Member of the Parliamentary Legislature (MPL), Hlanganani Gumbi, was hijacked 10 months ago.
Samul Hassani, 39, a metered taxi driver, had just stopped to drop his passengers off at about 10pm on Tuesday when multiple shots were fired at him. It is believed he was killed by a bullet wound to his neck. Nothing was taken from the car.
A passenger, Nomonde Mboza, 36, said as she was getting out of the car she heard gunshots and fell to the ground.
She had only a vague memory of how the attack happened. She remembered the sounds of shots going off.
When she regained consciousness she found her 2-year-old daughter, whom she had been carrying, lying on top of her unharmed.
“I saw the driver was bleeding from the neck and slumped over the steering wheel. We then noticed he was dead and called the police,” said Mboza.
As usual, Hassani had collected her from Dalton Hostel where she works till late as a street vendor. She said there had been three other passengers in the vehicle including her boyfriend, Vakuva Pesa, 36.
She said when they were at the bottom of Clark Road a white car started following them, and came to a halt when Hassani stopped to drop off two passenger near Davenport Centre.
“It continued to follow us, and I asked the driver if he knew the car that was following us. He just said ‘no’. It even drove through a red robot after overtaking us at speed… The car continued to follow us until we stopped near our flat, which is where I heard the gunshots.”
Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane confirmed the attack.
Gumbi said last year he was attacked in the same area. “It was at 9pm when I was confronted by two gunmen.
“They pointed a gun at me and got away with my VW Polo.”
“If you drive in Glenwood at night check people around you, lock the doors and be in the company of someone,” he said.
The Mercury