A Mpumalanga businessman who was found dead in his bedroom did not commit suicide - he was shot dead.

A Mpumalanga businessman who was found dead in his bedroom did not commit suicide - he was shot dead.

Initially, police were treating the death of Lemmy Sebanyoni, a tycoon from KaNyamazane outside Nelspruit, as suicide.

The body of the 39-year-old Sebanyoni was found by customers who wanted to buy liquor at one of his taverns in KaNyamazane last week Thursday.

Sebanyoni's mother, Lilinyana Tsela, told Sowetan yesterday: "The customers were surprised by the fact that the shop was still closed at 9am while they knew that he always opened on time.

"They tried to call him and when his phone rang unanswered, they suspected something was wrong and decided to go to his house to investigate."

Tsela said some of the customers checked through the window of Sebanyoni's bedroom and saw his naked body lying in a pool of blood next to his bed.

Then police were called.

"When police arrived at the scene they suspected that my son had committed suicide," Tsela said.

"Two days later, the family was told the case had been closed as it is suicide. We did not understand what they were talking about.

"We went back to the police and insisted that an autopsy be conducted. And after the postmortem was conducted, it was found that the cause of his death was gunshot from his back through to his heart."

Sebanyoni's cousin, Uyanda Mbuli, said there were no signs of forced entry into the house.

Sebanyoni's girlfriend, Faith Manana, who spent the night with him, told Sebanyoni's family that when she left his house at 6.30am, Sebanyoni was still alive.

Tsela said she and her family members were worried about "lack of urgency" on the part of police and a week after the death of her son, no one, including Manana, had been interviewed.

Police spokesperson, Andries Shikwambane, said: "At the moment we are busy collecting evidence and we are looking at all possible leads."