Armed man goes wild in tavern
15 March 2010, 08:22
By Botho Molosankwe
A young man went berserk and shot two people at a Soweto shebeen after requesting to be played a song called You Said You'll Die For Me.
When the song was playing, the 33-year-old man started dancing, then whipped out a gun and shot two men. It's believed he harboured grudges against the victims.
He then tried to shoot the shebeen owner and another man, but they fled and locked themselves in a bedroom.
Veli Mkhaliphi, 33, and Nkosinathi Sibisi, 27, were taken to Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital.
Sibisi was believed to be in a critical condition.
Shebeen owner Mandla Mabaso, 32, said he was puzzled by what had happened on Saturday morning.
He had thrown a party and some people were still at his place at 6am on Saturday when the gunman arrived.
After exchanging pleasantries with Mabaso, he requested the song.
"He said 'Please play me You Said You'll Die For Me by Black Coffee'. I do not know how he knew that I had the CD, but I played it for him. Then he took off his leather jacket and started dancing.
"I then asked him to show me some of the dance moves I had seen him do, and he happily obliged. At some point I went to the kitchen and heard a loud bang.
"I thought it was just fireworks, but then when it went off for the second time and I heard a woman scream, I knew it was a gunshot," Mabaso said.
When he went to the lounge, he found that Mkhaliphi had been shot in an arm.
Another man tried to wrestle the gun from the shooter's hand. The gunman then shot Mkhaliphi twice more in his thighs.
He then shot Sibisi in the abdomen and thigh.
Mabaso's neighbour, a metro police officer who was preparing for duty when he heard the commotion and saw the gunman running away, was also shot at twice. He was not harmed and managed to subdue the man.
Sibisi's mother Nokuthula said: "He had surgery to remove the bullet from his stomach. He cannot eat, talk or drink water."
The 46-year-old woman said she believed her son was shot over a woman who lives three streets away from her house.
She believes that the woman was going out with both the gunman and her son at the same time, and that must have triggered the first attack in January, when he stabbed her son in the face with a bottle.
Nokuthula said the gunman, who she knows well, lives in the neighbourhood.
"The matter is still in court, and my son was healing when this happened. The person who shot him needs to be arrested and kept away, because if not, we will take action," she said.
Inspector Kay Makhubela, of the Jabulani police, said the man had been charged with two counts of attempted murder and the possession of an unlicensed firearm. He was due to appear in court on Monday.
A young man went berserk and shot two people at a Soweto shebeen after requesting to be played a song called You Said You'll Die For Me.
When the song was playing, the 33-year-old man started dancing, then whipped out a gun and shot two men. It's believed he harboured grudges against the victims.
He then tried to shoot the shebeen owner and another man, but they fled and locked themselves in a bedroom.
Veli Mkhaliphi, 33, and Nkosinathi Sibisi, 27, were taken to Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital.
Sibisi was believed to be in a critical condition.
Shebeen owner Mandla Mabaso, 32, said he was puzzled by what had happened on Saturday morning.
He had thrown a party and some people were still at his place at 6am on Saturday when the gunman arrived.
After exchanging pleasantries with Mabaso, he requested the song.
"He said 'Please play me You Said You'll Die For Me by Black Coffee'. I do not know how he knew that I had the CD, but I played it for him. Then he took off his leather jacket and started dancing.
"I then asked him to show me some of the dance moves I had seen him do, and he happily obliged. At some point I went to the kitchen and heard a loud bang.
"I thought it was just fireworks, but then when it went off for the second time and I heard a woman scream, I knew it was a gunshot," Mabaso said.
When he went to the lounge, he found that Mkhaliphi had been shot in an arm.
Another man tried to wrestle the gun from the shooter's hand. The gunman then shot Mkhaliphi twice more in his thighs.
He then shot Sibisi in the abdomen and thigh.
Mabaso's neighbour, a metro police officer who was preparing for duty when he heard the commotion and saw the gunman running away, was also shot at twice. He was not harmed and managed to subdue the man.
Sibisi's mother Nokuthula said: "He had surgery to remove the bullet from his stomach. He cannot eat, talk or drink water."
The 46-year-old woman said she believed her son was shot over a woman who lives three streets away from her house.
She believes that the woman was going out with both the gunman and her son at the same time, and that must have triggered the first attack in January, when he stabbed her son in the face with a bottle.
Nokuthula said the gunman, who she knows well, lives in the neighbourhood.
"The matter is still in court, and my son was healing when this happened. The person who shot him needs to be arrested and kept away, because if not, we will take action," she said.
Inspector Kay Makhubela, of the Jabulani police, said the man had been charged with two counts of attempted murder and the possession of an unlicensed firearm. He was due to appear in court on Monday.
- This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on March 15, 2010
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