Durban - Slain Durban businessman Delani Maishi, 46, will be remembered for his kindness and as a people’s person who would not harm a fly, those at his funeral heard on Saturday.
Close to a thousand people,
including several well-known TV personalities, attended the service in Chesterville after Maishi was found murdered last month.
Maishi was well known in the
business community as one of the top-performing agents in Clientele Life’s network marketing division, Independent Field Advertiser.
His wife Olwethu Magidigidi said the last time she saw him was when he left home on Reconciliation Day.
His body was found in Verulam the next day.
“A case of murder is being investigated by Verulam SAPS after a body of a 46-year-old man was found in Verulam on December 16, 2019. He was reported missing to Cato Manor SAPS on December 16, 2019,” police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said in a statement.
However, Magidigidi said she was only notified two days after Christmas that her husband’s body had been found on a riverbank in Verulam. She said he had an open wound at the back of his head and police said they had found an axe next to his body.
An emotional Magidigidi said before he disappeared, they were
looking forward to moving to their new house in Westville later this year.
She said Maishi allegedly went to meet a traditional healer in Welbedacht, Chatsworth, when he went missing.
Friends and relatives gathered at the funeral service of Durban businessman Delani Maishi, who was found dead in Verulam after he went missing on Reconciliation Day. Picture: Leon Lestrade/African News Agency (ANA)
“It still baffles me why he had to meet an Inyanga (a traditional healer) because he never told me of his intention to meet him. Only a police investigation will unearth the details surrounding Delani’s death.”
She said while searching for her husband, she had to lie to their 7-year-old daughter who kept asking why her father had not joined them for dinner on Christmas Day.
“I had to tell her he had not come because he was working hard to spoil her with goodies. But after his body was found, I whispered in her sleep that Maishi was with the angels in heaven,” she said.
At the funeral attended by relatives, friends and business partners, including Clientele ambassadors and actors
Lilian Dube and Desmond Dube, Maishi was hailed as a success in the networking field.
Maishi leaves behind his wife and three children, including two from a previous marriage.