Man assassinated in SA

2008-03-18 07:22

Virginia Keppler

Pretoria - Hours after a man arrived in South Africa from London he was "assassinated" with a single shot to the heart and burnt in his rented Mercedes-Benz in Atteridgeville, Pretoria.

Spencer Stewart, 37, who had worked for a property company in London, had entered South Africa without his family's knowledge on March 3.

The secrecy surrounding his entry into the country and the way in which he died have convinced his family that he was assassinated.

"The fact that his damaged diving equipment, diving watch, gun and parts of his burnt-out cellphone were found in his car indicate that it wasn't a robbery or a hijacking," said his sister, Nicola Stewart, on Monday.

She said the post-mortem had shown he had been shot in the heart.

Went to friend in rented car

"We're waiting only for the results from his dental chart to confirm 100% that it is him."

Nicola said her brother had landed at 07:00 and had gone to a friend in Pretoria in a rented car.

"Not even his girlfriend, who is also overseas, knew he was coming to South Africa."

Nicola said her brother left his friend at 15.00 to meet someone.

"He didn't tell his friend where he was going or whom he was going to meet.

"At 19:45 his friend sent him an SMS to hear how his meeting was going and Spencer let him know that it was okay."

Nicola said police found her brother's remains in the burnt-out car at 20:00.

They traced the car to Avis and Avis then traced Spencer's family.

"We couldn't believe that he was in the country and when we phoned his friend, he confirmed it."

Nicola and her father, Richard, went to where her brother had died the next day to investigate for themselves.

"Something was seriously wrong.

"His girlfriend said Spencer had been very tense lately and he had said he had things to sort out."

Cellphone records

Spencer had been living on the West Rand up until last year and then went to London.

Late last year, he went to Egypt to go diving and then he went to London where he got a job.

Police were going through his cellphone records and had discovered that he had made only two calls and sent two SMSs to his friend's phone and his friend to him.

There were however other calls which he had received that day and which police were following up.

- Beeld