Why kill him? - dad

2006-12-08 22:09

Amanda Roesthoff

Johannesburg - If they wanted to hijack him, why did they put him in his car's boot and set it alight?

That is the question haunting City Press editor Mathata Tsedu, after his son was murdered on Thursday night.

The body of Avhatakali Netshisaulu, 31, was found in his burning car on a deserted rural road on the West Rand, barely 90 minutes after he phoned his wife Mulalo, 28, to say he was being followed.

He had left their home to meet two men in connection with a cellphone business transaction.

It is still not clear whether Netshisaulu kept his appointment with them before he was killed.

Panic-stricken call

At about 20:25 on Thursday evening she received a panic-stricken call from her husband of seven months.

"He told me two cars were shadowing him - one in front and one behind. Neither car had a number plate," she said on Friday.

She dialled the emergency number 10111, but even though she is herself a police employee, they did not want to send out a patrol car to look for her husband's car, because she could not tell them exactly which road he was in.

Mulalo and her brother, Awelani Muhanelwa, then went to look for Netshisaulu themselves.

Burning wreck

About an hour and a half later they came across the burning wreck of his car, with firefighters already trying to put out the fire.

They found his body in the car's boot.

The family blames the police for Netshisaulu's death.

"The family will always feel that had there been a swift response, his life could have been spared," said his father.

Tsedu did not want to speculate about the reason behind his son's death.

"Maybe we have become a community that has lost all logic. If they wanted to steal his car, why burn it?"

Netshisaulu's wallet and cellphone were found by an unknown man at a nearby filling station.

- Beeld