Outrage as South Africa captain shot dead
Print Edition
SOUTH Africa soccer captain Senzo Meyiwa was shot dead by burglars as he tried to protect his celebrity girlfriend during a break-in, a killing that sent shockwaves across the football-mad country.
At an emotional news conference yesterday, Meyiwa’s colleagues paid tribute to the 27-year-old goalkeeper, who was hit by a single round in the chest as he confronted two intruders on Sunday night at the home of actress and singer Kelly Khumalo in Vosloorus, a township southeast of Johannesburg. He was dead on arrival at hospital, police said.
Police said two men entered Khumalo’s house where Meyiwa was in a party of seven in the house. A third assailant waited outside the house and all three fled immediately after the shooting.
“Two guys entered the house and demanded cellphones, money and other valuables,” provincial security official Sizakele Nkosi-Malubane told reporters. “Senzo tried to protect Kelly because one of the men had a gun pointed towards her.”
Meyiwa’s death turns the spotlight once again on gun violence in South Africa less than a week after Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius was jailed for five years for shooting dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp last year. Yesterday, South African state prosecutors said they would appeal a culpable homicide verdict and five year jail term handed down to Pistorius.
This weekend’s Johannesburg derby in front of 90,000 fans between Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates — the club Meyiwa joined as a 13-year-old and ended up leading — was postponed.
“Don’t think such a good man as Senzo can go and vanish. His spirit will live,” Shakes Mashaba, coach of the Bafana Bafana national side, said, tears streaming down his cheeks and his voice quavering with emotion. “He would always be the leader.”
In the Pistorius trial, his lawyers had cited his fears that an intruder he was in the house as part of his defence.
“We mourn the death of this young footballer and team leader whose life has been taken away at the prime of his career,” President Jacob Zuma said. “The law enforcement authorities must leave no stone unturned in finding his killers and bring them to justice. Words cannot express the nation’s shock at this loss.”
Meyiwa captained South Africa in its last four matches in the African Nations Cup qualifiers without conceding a goal and played on Saturday when Pirates advanced to the semis of South African League Cup.
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