A popular hawker was shot and killed on Wednesday evening in Eastridge, Mitchells Plain.
Andre Jacobs, 47, who owns a second-hand goods stalltjie, was gunned down around 6pm on AZ Berman Drive, while one of his workers, aged 39, was also wounded.
According to his wife Abigail, 38, she spoke to her husband just moments before.
“He was inside the house with my daughter and I still asked him if he was not going to eat but he walked out,” the grieving widow says.
“Shots went off and I went outside and this is when a lady told me someone had been shot and that it was my husband,” she explains.
Abigail says she saw two ouens running towards a blue VW Golf.
“Wanneer ek uit gegaan het, toe sien ek twee outjies, their car was idling in the next road,” she adds.
“They came for my husband because they walked past some of the workers.”
She says she doesn’t know what the motive for the murder is but there have been threats made towards them, although she did not want to say anything more.
She says her husband was not a drug mert or a gangster.
“There were threats already and he went to confront the people, but he couldn’t get them.”
SAPS spokesperson Wesley Twigg confirms the shooting and says Mitchells Plain police are investigating cases of murder and attempted murder: “The suspects fled and are yet to be arrested. The motive for the attack is unknown.”
Community Policing Forum chairperson Norman Jantjies says they are concerned about the shootings and murders in the area.
“We need to have a state of emergency to get government and civil society to work on a Mitchells Plain gang intervention plan,” he says.