THE Mhala police are questioning a man after recovering the body of his "friend" who had been shot several times in the head.

THE Mhala police are questioning a man after recovering the body of his "friend" who had been shot several times in the head.

Tipper truck driver David Sithole had gone to dump rubbish at a site near Kumani village and came across the body late on Friday afternoon.

Sithole told Sowetan he was initially under the impression that the man, lying next to a beer bottle, had passed out while intoxicated, but on closer inspection he saw that he had been shot in the head.

"I was so shocked, especially because the blood was still fresh. I thought that the killer might be hiding somewhere nearby and that scared me to hell - but I managed to drive to the first house I could find in Kumani village for help."

Coincidentally, the house belonged to Kumani community policing forum secretary Sibongile Mathebula.

"I called the police from the scene using my cellphone. Sithole and I were scared that the person or people responsible for the murder could be nearby," Mathebula said.

Mhala police discovered that the victim had a cellphone in his pocket but that it was not functioning due to a weak battery. They took out the starter pack and called numbers saved in it - including one that had been saved under "mama".

"We managed to contact the victim's mother , who confirmed the cellphone was her son's, who had returned from Johannesburg on Wednesday," Mhala police spokesperson Inspector Robert Makhubele told Sowetan yesterday.

The victim was positively identified as Charles Monareng of Casteel, located between Acornhoek and Bushbuckridge, and he had left his home with a friend earlier in the day.

Police later tracked down the friend who was still in their custody yesterday afternoon.