When Kgomotso Vincent Diale woke up on Easter Monday, he did gardening at his Pimville, Soweto, home with no intention of joining a march to a nearby informal settlement over cable theft.
However, Diale, 44, was picked up from his home by some men who were part of the march to Chicken Farm informal settlement in Kliptown sparked by continuous power outages in Pimville Zones 3, 4, 5 and 7 due to cable theft.
The latest outage hit on Sunday.
Little did his family know that he would be gunned down on the day. Now, his family is seeking answers after the killing of the father of two.
Operation Dudula leader Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini was part of the group as a resident of Pimville.
Diale's younger brother Neo on Tuesday said he last saw his brother in the Monday morning after doing his gardening.
“I got a call from the people who were there [at the march]. They told me that he was missing from the group that had gone to the settlement. When I arrived there, the first thing I saw was his sneakers and a black jean that he was wearing.
“We are told by those who were there that a white VW Golf with a Lesotho registration plate arrived on the scene and started opening fire at the Pimville residents. As a family we are asking ourselves if these people will ever be found. A person from another country can come and commit a crime after which he runs back to his country. It will be difficult for anyone to trace him.”
He said he was shattered as his brother had played a huge role in his life.
“He was a father figure to me. A very humble man. Our father died in 1993, I was only three years old. Though he was my brother, he raised me as I grew up knowing him [as a father],” Diale said.
He said his neighbourhood has been having power outages for some time due to cable theft next to the informal settlement.
But residents of the informal settlement dismissed allegations that they could be the ones who opened fire on the group.
“These people came here and demanded electricity from us. We came out as the community and we told them we do not work for Eskom here. They came here for war. They were not here to enquire about anything,” one of the residents said.
She said she did not see anyone from the informal settlement opening fire at the residents of Pimville.
One of the organisers of the march, Siphiwe Mnisi, said the community first went to the area where the cable had been stolen near the settlement and saw the trenches where it was removed.
“We got information that the people who have a hand in cable theft are from Chicken Farm. We said let us go and speak to the leadership of the informal settlement about the issue.”
Mnisi said one of the leaders came down to meet them at the entrance of the settlement and less than two minutes into the conversation, they heard gunshots nearby.
“The first gunshots were from the back and people started running in different directions. Then there were gunshots that came from the settlement. That is when we realised things were really bad. One of the residents from the settlement hit Kgomotso with a beer bottle,” Mnisi said.
Mnisi said he did not see the VW Golf but others who were with him said it was the one at the back opening fire on the crowd.
He said he only realised at a later stage that Kgomotso had been shot.
Cable theft has been a serious problem for Soweto, causing disruption in electricity supply both in parts serviced by Eskom and City Power.
However, Eskom provincial spokesperson Tumi Mashishi said the area is not supplied by the power utility.
A security guard at a substation where the cable that supplies Pimville comes from said theft of infrastructure is common.
“The situation is so bad that if Eskom comes and replaces the cable now, tonight they will come and take it. It is a hopeless situation,” the guard who spoke to Sowetan anonymously said.
Police spokesperson Col Brenda Muridili said no arrests have been made.
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