As Nxumalo who was trying to restrain the child‚ they set upon him.
Nxumalo took his final breaths in a gutter‚ surrounded by police and paramedics.
Another man‚ who had tried to stand between the crowd and Nxumalo‚ was also beaten to death.
Speaking to TimesLIVE‚ Nxumalo’s sister‚ Mbali‚ said that the boy was known to slip into a mental state and would do “crazy and funny things”.
“Yesterday was no different. It just happened at a wrong place and people interpreted wrong‚” she said. “Mlu was Bab’u Cele’s best friend. They traveled together every morning and every afternoon and it was not the first time they had had to pick the child at a taxi rank."
“Today [Wednesday] is his birthday and he was looking forward to this day all this year and he never got to see it. We are shattered‚” she said.
Cele’s wife‚ Jabulisile‚ said her husband had watched helplessly as his friend was kicked to death and was shaken to his core.
“He’s too traumatised. When I arrived yesterday at the scene he was paralysed with shock‚ his mouth was dry and his blood pressure had shot up‚” she said.
She said her son escaped the chaos but Nxumalo was surrounded.
“I just don’t know what to explain to Mlu’s family. We were all like family‚ because as much as he was my husband’s friend he was much younger and we regarded him as our son. He called me ‘mama’ and called my husband ‘baba’‚” she said.
Police are investigating two cases of murder.
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