WATCH | 'Heartbreaking' visit by Cape Town mayor to slain officer's home

Slain LEAP officer 32-year-old Zamikhaya Kwinana was with colleagues patrolling the Nyanga township when they came under fire over the weekend as taxi strikes rocked Cape Town.

Geordin Hill-Lewis and mayco member for safety and security JP Smith visited Kwinana's family to convey their condolences and update them on the investigation.

“He was a beloved law enforcement officer in the LEAP programme in the City of Cape Town and it was important for us to come and give our deepest condolences and sympathies to his family,” said Hill-Lewis.

“We are being asked to negotiate with people who are responsible for this. I cannot come and look at Mrs Kwinana, his sister and his four little children and his mother on the weekend and say that we are negotiating with the people who did this. It's not acceptable. We will not negotiate with people who have got a very literal gun to our head,” he said.

The emotional family had only good things to say about Kwinana. His younger brother Lunga said, “The loss of my brother is painful but there is nothing I can do about it because he died on duty. He always told me soldiers die at war.''

Smith said the “loss of humans is the most painful thing in this taxi strike and some of the taxi drivers are against the violence”. 

“There is no way to ever make it right. He's gone forever. I see that as a loss of a family member because we talk about our safety and security, family and that death really hurt me and really angered me.” 

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