Critically wounded after gunmen pumped 255 rounds into the taxi he was travelling in, Hopewell Lebetsa, 19, managed to reach for his phone and dial his father's number.
But when his dad answered, the teen was unable to speak and could only mutter the word "Ba".
Moments later, he died.
Lebetsa, of Ivory Park in Johannesburg, was among the 13 people who died in last weekend's taxi ambush, which has shocked South Africa.
Among the victims were mechanics, drivers and friends, all linked to the Ivory Park Taxi Association. The taxi was returning from the KwaZulu-Natal funeral of a friend and colleague, Phiwayinkosi Mthembu, who had been gunned down in a parking lot in Ivory Park on July 11.
Last weekend's attack happened on the R74 near Colenso. Eleven people died on the scene and two in hospital. Two others were wounded and two escaped unharmed.
Lebetsa's sister, Daisy Mlambo, told the Sunday Times she still could not believe that her brother - who wrote matric last year and had dreams of becoming a cash-in-transit guard - had died in such a violent manner, because he was such a loving and peaceful person.
"I put his picture on my WhatsApp status a couple of weeks ago. He phoned me and asked me: 'Am I dying that you post my pictures on your profile?' I did not like his question, so I removed his picture. It was just a joke and I did not take it seriously."
GUNS IN BELTS
At a memorial service for those killed in the attack, held at the Rabie Ridge Hall in Ekurhuleni on Thursday, emotions ran high and guns could be seen protruding from the belts of many taxi owners. Police and bodyguards had a strong presence.
Fingers were pointed, with South African National Taxi Council president Phillip Taaibosch blaming taxi owners, the government and the media for the industry's bad reputation.
The Ivory Park Taxi Association claimed it was "operating in peace" and had no idea why it had been targeted - a claim many families of the deceased do not believe.
Among them is Sindi Mchunu, who regrets not having advised her brother Xolani Mncube not to attend his boss's funeral.
Mncube, 38, who has a six-year-old son, was driving the Quantum taxi when it was ambushed."When my brother's boss died, I asked if he was going to continue working in the taxi industry and he answered yes. A thought later came to me that I should tell him not to go to the funeral because his boss had been gunned down. Then I changed my mind because if he did not go to the funeral it would look like he was involved in his boss's death. I should have told him what I was thinking."
She said she did not believe taxi bosses' claims they did not know why they had been attacked. "They know what is happening. The people who do not know anything are those who died."
While competition over key routes is widely accepted as being behind taxi violence, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation researcher Malose Langa said it was the government's inability to regulate the taxi industry that had brought about a "mafia situation".
He added: "Over time, the taxi industry has normalised the breaking of law on South African roads. We only notice them when 11 people get killed in a second.
"There are so many violent acts that they commit daily - physically and symbolically - but we have normalised that and have accepted it and said that is how they are."
'DON'T BLAME US'
Ongoing fights over routes in Gauteng in 2016 prompted the province's portfolio committee on transport to hold an inquiry into the corruption and route allocation in the provincial transport department.
Committee chairman Mafika Mgcina said a report on the outcomes of the inquiry had recommended that the government ensure that before it allocates a route, it talks to the taxi association in the area to avoid conflict.
"For example, before the Mall of Africa [was built], there was a taxi association operating in that area. Now there is a mall, why are you allocating [the route] to another operator instead of giving it to the original taxi association that has been operating for years in that area?" Mgcina said.
The transport department said it was not responsible for the conflict.
"The conflict and violence in the minibus taxi industry is primarily related to intra- and inter-organisational rivalry over routes, internal leadership struggles in taxi associations, the control over and lack of accountability of financial resources within taxi associations, and the introduction of illegal taxi operators by elements within associations on selected routes," the department said in a statement...