The Magistrate presiding over the bail application for alleged underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack, has been shot in an incident that also claimed the life of a female SAPS colonel.
Magistrate Ace Mashala was visiting friends in Mfuleni when he was shot in the buttocks.
The Hawks are now investigating the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Koliswa Vani, 50, who was shot dead while at a car wash on Sunday afternoon.
According to Daily Voice sources, Vani’s three-year-old grandchild was also injured in the shooting.
“She (Koliswa) was at the car wash and three unknown men approached and one took out a gun and fired several shots.
“The Colonel was declared dead on the scene and later it was found that the one victim is Ace Mashala who is the magistrate for Modack’s bail hearing.
“Hy was in die hol geskiet and is now in hospital. It is not clear if he was the target but it seems like a stray bullet.”
When the Daily Voice visited the scene in Tourmaline Road on Monday, witnesses claimed the magistrate was suiping when he was shot.
His friend, who asked not to be named, says Mashala didn’t even notice he had been shot.
“When the shooter had sped off, Jess, as we call him, climbed in his car and drove away from the scene,” he explains.
“But then he came back when the police were attending to the murder case. It is only then that he noticed he had been shot in the buttocks.”
The magistrate then went to a medical facility.
His friend claims he was not targeted in the shooting: “If they were looking for him, then why would they not just go straight to him?
“And why would they shoot him in the bum?”
“He is always driving around in Mfuleni with his personalised number plate, it’s easy to find him, so if anyone wanted to kill him, they would have by now.
“We didn’t even know that he has a high-profile case he is busy with.”
Meanwhile, Modack along with Zane Kilian, Jacques Cronje and Sergeant Ashley Tabisher returned to the Blue Downs Magistrates’ Court yesterday where the state prosecutor told the court that Magistrate Mashala was “unwell” and the matter was postponed to 24 May.
Vani, who worked as the shift commander at Delft Police Station, was shot in the back and died on the scene.
Her three-year-old grandson was shot in the head while her six-year-old granddaughter managed to escape unscathed.
A distraught family friend, Nosipho Mnguni, says she heard the killers were in a white Toyota Avanza with covered number plates.
“They were seen driving by the car wash two times and the third time they asked how much it is to wash a car,” she explains.
“And then Koliswa was shot and killed after that. I think the three-year-old was running towards his grandma when he got hit.
“The doctors managed to get the bullet out of his head, there is still a fragment in there which must still be removed, but he is healing.”
She says Vani was a people’s person who was always smiling.
Acting Police Commissioner, Thembisile Patekile, says they are “saddened” and shocked by Vani’s death.
“We vow that we will not rest until we have found the killers and bring them to justice.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za
monique.duval@inl.co.za