Johannesburg - George Mdlalose, 34, cheated death four months ago when his car rolled many times after he hit the brakes on a wet road.
The accident was so bad that everyone was surprised that Mdlalose, who worked in IT, got out of the mangled BMW unscathed.
He bought himself a new car, an Audi A4, two months ago.
On Sunday morning, hijackers shot and killed him for it.
Mdlalose’s father Josiah has described his son’s killers as cruel.
“They were armed, he was unarmed. Why did they have to kill him? It’s not like he was going to run behind the car after they had taken it,” the 75-year-old said, pain showing on his face.
Mdlalose had gone out partying on Saturday night.
On his way home early on Sunday, he went to his aunt’s house in Pimville at about 5.30am and parked at the gate. His nephew Prince woke up and went to sit with him inthe car.
Prince sat in the driver’s seat while Mdlalose sat on the passenger side. They were chatting.
A champagne-coloured Toyota Corolla drove past and the occupants stared at the two. Mdlalose told an alarmed Prince to ignore the Toyota’s occupants.
Then two armed men materialised on both sides of the car, telling them to open the doors.
The assailants claimed they did not want to fight with the Mdlalose men.
One of the men threw George out of the vehicle. Then Prince saw them wrestling on the ground.
George got back into the car and the man knocked on the window with his gun, ordering him out.
The thug standing at the driver’s side told Prince to switch on the car, put it in neutral and get out. He warned him not to go into the yard, but to walk away without glancing back.
When he was about four houses away, Prince heard two gunshots. He turned to see his uncle lying on the ground and the hijackers speeding off in the Audi.
Prince ran back to the scene. “I saw blood on his stomach and felt his pulse,” he said.
He ran into the house, woke up his grandmother, told her his uncle had been shot and grabbed the car keys to the family car, a VW Polo, Prince said.
The teenager bundled the bleeding George into the car and sped to the Lesedi Private Hospital.
George died shortly after arrival at the hospital.
A friend who came to offer condolences said he at first thought it was a joke when his uncle told him that the 34-year-old had died.
“I’m in shock. He was such a jolly person,” Sakhile Jele said.
The Audi was found on Monday abandoned a few kilometres away in Phiri, Soweto.
Josiah said the police had told him that his son’s cellphone was still in the car.
Captain Nondumiso Mpantsha said murder and hijacking cases had been opened.
George is survived by his 27-year-old wife and two children, aged 7 and 18 months.
The Star