The streets of Mapetla, Soweto, had an eerie silence about them on Thursday.
There was no roar of businessman Warren Muzi Nzama’s famed red Ferrari.
No roar of the Mercedes-Benz G63 Wagon that he was last seen driving a week ago when the entrepreneur visited his modest family home in the township.
Nzama’s home, stands out from the rest due renovations.
Just last week, Nzama was there to provide a contractor with building plans to renovate and extend his mother’s house.
The property development entrepreneur who was married to award-winning businesswoman Thandeka Nombanjinji-Nzama was gunned down along Klipspruit Valley Road in Soweto on Sunday, when a Toyota Etios blocked his way and the occupants opened fire.
Gugulethu Khubeka, 21, from Duduza, on the East Rand, who was with him in the car at the time, was also killed.
To those who knew him, he seemed to have been plunged into a sea of success beyond their imagination.
During his memorial service held at Protea Multipurpose Centre on Thursday, speakers described the 41-year-old as an ambitious and driven human being who did not lose his humility, despite his success.
“I knew him before he had his first vehicle. While his company, Nzama Consulting (a company he founded with his wife in 2015), was registered but was not operational. He was knowledgeable and ambitious but after he married Thandeka, things seemed to fall into place for him,” said Martin Mbatha.
Mbatha said he had seen Nzama grow in leaps and bounds and that his death was a tragedy.
Outside the venue, dozens of German-made vehicles packed the parking lot wherefamily and friends donned in designer labels such as Botega Veneta, Gucci and Valentino, gathered to pay their respects to a man who had served as a beacon of hope.
Despite the admiration that many conveyed during the service, a family friend who took to the podium said Nzama was often worried that people did not like him.
Tshepo Mofokeng said: “Muzi would sometimes come to me and he would be crying. He would complain that people hated him and he did not understand the reasons for this. I used to tell him that people did not like progress. They did not like to see what you have made out of yourself.”
Neighbours described how the street became inaccessible on Monday and Tuesday after news of Nzama’s death spread through the township with one of them saying that the value of vehicles that parked around Nzama’s home could have easily surpassed R20m when affluent friends and business partners swarmed the area to pay their respects.
“He wasn’t a show off. But he would come here (Mapetla) to show his mother his cars. He came here weekly just to see his family,” said neighbour Lehlohonolo Mokoena.
“It showed how hard he worked. He was able to mix with a lot of successful people who were in different industries and he fitted right in. A simple guy from our neighbourhood, grew up to show us that we can make something out of ourselves,” said another neighbour Mlungisi Tshabalala.
Nzama will be buried on Friday.
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