Bolt driver was innocent victim in KZN police shoot-out, say family

Family and friends of one of the four men killed in a police shoot-out on Saturday are aggrieved he has been branded a “criminal” and want to clear his name.

E-hailing driver Busani Shezi, 23, was among the four men killed in a shoot-out with the police in eSikebheni area, Umzinyathi.

Police reports alleged four men were linked to the double murder of a 43-year-old woman and her 22-year-old daughter in eMachobeni, Inanda on Thursday.

KZN police spokesperson Col Robert Netshiunda said police, acting on a tip-off, intercepted the suspects who were believed to be on their way to perform cleansing rituals at Mpophomeni after the hit on the women.

The vehicle was intercepted and police signalled for the driver of the suspects' vehicle to stop.

“The occupants of the vehicle responded by firing shots at the police officers, and the tactically ready police officers returned fire. After the shoot-out, all four occupants of the vehicle were fatally wounded. Three firearms were found in the possession of the suspects.”

However, a family member who spoke to TimesLIVE Premium on condition of anonymity, said Shezi was not a criminal but had been hired by the three men to transport them since he was an e-hailing driver.

“He was never a criminal, everyone in the township knows that. If people request your services as someone who operates as a Bolt driver, you transport them to their destination. That’s the situation he found himself in: he was doing his work but met the wrong people,” he said.

He said it was hard to accept the reality of what had happened to him, but what pained them even more, was seeing him painted as a criminal as well.

“It hurts that the child died while doing an honest job, trying to put food on the table for his family, only to be painted by the same brush as those criminals for the whole world to see,” he said.

“That’s the part we would like to clarify. He was doing his job, unfortunately in his line of work they always run that risk: either they are called by people who end up robbing them or who put them in this situation.”

Those sentiments were backed by his friends and fellow drivers.

A friend, who also preferred to remain anonymous, described him as a hardworking young man.

“He didn’t drink or smoke, which is very rare for a young man in the township. He was the one who would tell us off when we were wrong,” he said.

He would wake up at 5am everyday to transport staff, mainly security guards from Chatsworth to Pinetown, then activate his Bolt app during the day. He also had church members that he used to transport every Sunday morning.

—  A friend of deceased e-hailing driver Busani Shezi

“He would wake up at 5am everyday to transport staff, mainly security guards from Chatsworth to Pinetown, then activate his Bolt app during the day. He also had church members that he used to transport every Sunday morning.”

He added that the Monday after the incident was a very emotional one because he had to transport Shezi’s staff.

“Monday without him was not normal. I had to leave at 5am to take his staff to Pinetown, but I only woke up at 6.30am. I told them I won’t be able to take them later. Even on Sunday I couldn’t take his church load.”

Sbusiso Myeni, a scholar transporter and a friend, said he was shocked when he heard the news on Sunday, as he had seen him the day before.

“We have a spot where we wait for students to drive them back home after school, and he used to come and chill with us sometimes. He came on Friday as well and everything was normal. I was very disturbed to find out the Sunday that he had been killed and that he was called a criminal.”

Myeni said he went with the family to the police station to identify the car and get a sense of what happened, but they were not satisfied with the answers.

“We didn’t get the answers we were looking for. We were invited to ask questions, but instead of getting answers on some questions, we were told police are still ‘investigating’.”

Having seen the vehicle the victims were travelling in, Myeni said the story about the suspects having fired at the police first did not completely add up, a sentiment shared by the family spokesperson.

“All the windows in the car are closed, yet the police claim to have been shot at first. Even those that are broken you can clearly see that they were closed. There’s no indication of bullets coming from inside the car even in the videos, all arrows point to bullets (coming) from outside.”

The family and friends said they would wait to hear from the police before they lodged a complaint with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.

Myeni said they were led to believe by police that the traditional healer the group was driving to for cleansing had been apprehended.

They suspect he may have been the mastermind behind the murder of the two women and later informed the police of the whereabouts of the hitmen.

“If that is the case then the traditional healer must be held responsible for the murder of all six victims. That would mean he is a serial killer who should be stopped, because if he still roams the streets, the danger will not have been neutralised,” he said.

“We want justice for Busani and for his name to be cleared, and also for the traditional healer to be sentenced,” he said.