Johannesburg – Soweto business owners on Vilakazi Street on Tuesday, vowed that they would fight crime in the area and not be intimidated by the killing of a restaurant manager of one of the popular eateries.
This comes after the manager of Sakhumzi Restaurant located on Vilakazi Street, Soweto's tourist attraction, was gunned down in the early hours of Monday morning in a failed attempted business robbery.
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, who visted the place on Tuesday, said that the City's immediate concern was to prevent petty crimes which lead to serious crimes and protect the patrons of Vilakazi Street establishments.
"We are working with the police and other law enforcement agencies to establish immediate plans of combating crime in this street. I have already requested the MMC for Safety to get me a quotation for CCTV cameras on this street and I will be meeting the provincial police commissioner to discuss how we can make Vilakazi Street safe," Mashaba said.
"This is an isolated event but that we are taking very seriously. This incident affects tourism badly. Criminals will never intimidate us and they must be arrested and taken out of our community."
Vilakazi Street is famous for being the only street in the world which housed two Nobel Peace Prize laurets, former President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
Restaurant owner Sakhumzi Maqubela said 60-year-old Kwesi Ebenezer Hudson had been a manager at his establishment before his untimely death at the hands of unknown suspects.
"Mr Hudson used to be my high school teacher in Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape. He was like a father figure to me. He was my mentor. I brought him to my business two years ago after he spent 35 years as a teacher," Maqubela said.
"So we are grieving and mourning his loss. His family is arriving from Ghana tomorrow and then we will have a memorial service. But his brother who is an army general has already arrived in the country and we have met him."
Bongi Vilakazi of Nexdor, a restaurant next door Sakhumzi, said this incident affected him personally as he also resides in Orlando. Clive Masinga, owner of Wine Bar Restaurant, was one of the people in the crime scene.
"My business has been trading for two years and we have never had such an incident in this area. But we are not going to be intimidated. We will continue trading and creating jobs," Masinga said.
Max Ditchaba of Ditchaba Shisanyama said this incident should make business owners to rally behind each other and create a safest place for their customers.
"We should not let people who don't know the motive behind Vilakazi Street to mess it up. This should unite owners to fight crime and we are grateful for the proposal of CCTV cameras," Ditchaba said.