WATCH | Emfuleni accountant killed ‘minutes after arriving at tyre fitment centre’

A tyre fitment centre employee, where an Emfuleni local municipality official was murdered, says he was traumatised by having to put the woman’s tyre back into the vehicle while her lifeless bloodied body lay nearby.

Martha Mani Rantsofu, an acting accountant at the municipality, was gunned down on March 30 in Vanderbijlpark, a stone’s throw away from the police station.

Speaking to Sowetan, the employee who asked not to be named said he was the one helping Rantsofu on the day.

The man said Rantsofu arrived just after 4pm and did not even spend five minutes at the centre before she was gunned down.

“The belief is that she might have been followed to the centre because it happened quick.

“When she arrived, she spoke to me and asked that I help with a punctured tyre. She was even busy on her phone before the incident.”

The man said when the first shot went off, he thought it was a tyre bursting.

However, he realised it was not when the gunfire continued.

“I had just moved from her when she was killed. The tyre was not even fixed yet, but I had to finish fixing it and then fitted it back into her car while her body lay on the floor. It was a traumatic experience,” he said.

“I had to jump over her blood as she was right next to the car,” said the employee, who said that he would like to get counselling after what he experienced.

Another employee said he too thought the first gunshot was a tyre bursting, which is what happens in their business.

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“The whole thing lasted less than 25 seconds,” he said.

He said the driver used a grey Polo as a getaway vehicle.

Members of the political killings task team who are investigating the murder visited the centre on Monday and Tuesday to gather evidence, he said.

Rantsofu was buried on Saturday.

A video circulating online captured the 39-year-old woman’s last moments. Her killer approaches her, shoots her, and as she falls, he pumps more bullets into her head at close range and then flees the scene.

Her brother Tsotang Rantsofu, who identified the body, said he had to clean her blood from the floor after the forensics removed it from the scene.

The family said before her death, Rantsofu had been involved in a legal battle with a property developer.

She was an applicant in the matter which, according to the family, was set down for trial on April 9.

She had also opened an intimidation case against the developer.

Tsotang said he received a call just after 7pm on the day of the murder to go to a fast food outlet in Vanderbiljpark. However, the caller, his sister’s friend, did not say why.

He thought maybe his sister had been hospitalised.

However, when he arrived at the scene, what he saw ripped his heart apart.

“I saw a shoe and her leg... she was already covered. [It was] the shock of my life. I felt like my heart was outside my body and someone stabbed it with a knife.

“I couldn’t believe it... seeing her face and lifeless body really killed me. My heart felt rage. I never thought this thing could happen to my sister. It was hard. It has been heavy for all of us. For our mother, for us her siblings.”

Tsotang believes the killer wanted to make sure his sister was dead.

“It was not a case of scaring her, but that [the shooter] was sent to make sure she does not see the sun the next morning.”

In June, Rantsofu was due to graduate with an honours degree in public relations from Unisa.

She is survived by her daughter, who is in grade 12, her mother and five siblings.

Sowetan