Top specialist murdered

One of South Africa's leading dermatologists, Dr John Moche, has been murdered.

Ernest Kenoshi, CEO of Steve Biko Academic Hospital, in Pretoria, where Moche was a principal specialist, described the death of a "friend and very valuable" senior medic as a big loss.

Moche, 43, of Centurion Golf Estate, was hijacked and shot dead shortly after he left work on Friday evening.

He was with a female colleague at the time of the attack.

Kenoshi said Moche, who joined the hospital in 2007 and was one of three dermatologists there, was responsible for teaching undergraduates.

He described him as a dedicated doctor whose patients came from various parts of the country, in particular Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

"His death is a big loss to the hospital and the whole country."

Kenoshi and Moche were close friends who spent many hours on the golf course.

They had made plans to tee off yesterday.

"On Friday, we spoke at length over the phone, between 7pm and 7.45pm, and he also sent me two e-mails. The last e-mail I received from him was at 8.01pm."

Kenoshi did not know what time Moche left the hospital.

"But I received a call at about 8.40pm to say that he was shot in a hijacking about a kilometre from the hospital."

Gauteng provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the hijacking occurred in Viljoen Street in the Pretoria suburb of Moot at about 8.30pm.

Moche was with a nurse in a Range Rover when they were approached by two gunmen.

"The doctor was shot once in the chest and the paramedics tried to resuscitate him without success. He was certified dead at the scene," Dlamini said.

The nurse was unharmed.

Moche's car was found abandoned in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria.