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Cecil Motsepe

SLAIN king of reggae Lucky Dube was assassinated.

This is according to family and friends who dismissed police ­reports that Dube was killed in a botched hijacking.

“If you hijack a peaceful someone like Lucky Dube you don’t pump three bullets into his body. You simply scare him off and take the car,” said poet and activist Mzwakhe Mbuli.

Dube was killed in Rosettenville on Thursday night when he dropped off his son at his uncle’s house.

“No cellphone, money or any other item was taken. No car was taken. So how do you come to that conclusion and tell the masses it is a ­hijacking?” asked Mbuli. ‘‘He was murdered in cold blood. They can call it a hijacking but I maintain it was a premeditated murder.”

He said his suspicions were corroborated by an account of a neighbour who saw a VW Polo which had been in the street, driving up and down slowly on three ­occasions.

He said Dube was gunned down when the car returned for the third time.

“It is difficult to say why anyone would plot his murder because you don’t know what has been happening in his life,” he said.

Family spokesperson Richard Siluma said: “I don’t believe it was a hijacking either. The truth will come out.” Dube’s entire family quietly left Johannesburg for Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, on Friday amid an upswing of anger over the killing and international media attention.

Siluma has been tasked with keeping the media as far away as possible from the family.

This is despite the fact that Dube was a national asset and his success was largely due to exposure through the media.

“You are not allowed to speak to a family member or take any photograph of them. You have never seen Lucky’s wife, children or house in the media. The family would like to keep it that way,” said Siluma.

But a source close to the family said: “The media did not kill Lucky. They don’t want you to find out how many children he has.”

City Press has been reliably informed that Dube had seven children with different women.

A memorial service will be held at the Bassline in Newtown from 11am to 2pm on Wednesday.

Funeral arrangements will be announced after a family meeting is held today.

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