The killing of tourist Anni Dewani has sent shock waves around the world from Gugulethu to Sweden and the UK.
Gugulethu residents on Monday expressed anger and were worried about tourists staying away.
A Gugulethu repairman said: “Criminals do not target tourists, they usually walk around here freely. I have never heard of tourists being hijacked here. What happened must have been fast.”
The shopkeeper at Noxy’s Spaza shop said: “They never rob tourists. Sometimes the tourists do community work here and leave their cars parked out here and nothing happens.”
A woman at the nearby shebeen said: “The people who did this are not from here.”
On honeymoon in Cape Town, Anni Dewani and husband Shrien Dewani were returning to Cape Town from a trip to the Winelands when, on impulse, they asked the driver of their taxi to make a detour to Gugulethu. According to police, they had wanted to experience the famed township nightlife.
Once there they were hijacked and taken to Khayelitsha where Shrien Dewani was dropped off while the hijackers drove off with his wife. He went to a police station to raise the alarm, with police later finding Anni Dewani’s body on the back seat of the abandoned taxi.
Asked about the fate of the driver of the Volkswagen Sharan taxi which was hijacked on Saturday, police spokesperson Andre Traut said: “Police are not releasing information on the case.”
Asked whether police had captured video images from a security camera mounted where the hijacking took place, Trout declined to say.
Another police spokesperson, Captain Frederick van Wyk, would say only: “At this stage nobody has been arrested, but detectives are following up on all possible leads.”
Dana Cook, media officer of the Dewani family’s company, PSP Healthcare, was appointed family spokesperson and told the Cape Times: “We cannot give any information at the moment.”
The Swedish and British embassies have not released details of the incident.
According to Swedish newspaper The Expressen, Anni Dewani was a Swedish citizen and her husband, Shrien Dewani, a British national. It also quoted her father, Vinod Hindocha: “It’s just terrible. She was the most beautiful girl in the world,”
The BBC quoted members of his family in Bristol, UK, as saying they were shocked and still “trying to take it all in”.
The Dewani family owns a number of nursing homes in England through their company. The company’s website said Shrien Dewani, his brother and father started the company in 2005.
The Cape Grace hotel’s public relations officer, Leah de Klerk, said Shrien Dewani was staying at the hotel. She said the taxi was not affiliated to them and the couple had not yet booked in when they were hijacked.
Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde said: “Our dedicated team in the province is on hand 24/7 and has been assisting Mr Dewani as much as possible with emotional, medical and logistical support. His family and friends have arrived to be with him.”
Mayor Dan Plato, political parties and tourism industry issued statements offering their condolences and asking for the speedy arrest of the hijackers.
“The ANC condemns the violent attack and killing of Dewani or any other person. In essence South Africa is not a violent country. Violent elements should be detained and dealt with the full blow of the law,” the party said.
The ANC Women’s League Cape Town branch said: “Like the horrific murder of Amy Biehl in Gugulethu in 1993, the killing of this lovely young visitor to our country throws into stark relief the horror of the violence that confronts women here on a daily basis.”
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