We're living in fear, says family of taxi owner who was shot dead

The woman taxi owner who died in a hail of bullets on Monday night was attacked near the same intersection as her slain husband seven years ago.

Now, her relatives say they are living in fear, and don’t know where they will hold Thandazile Zulu’s funeral service.

Zulu was travelling near the intersection of the R554 and Osborne Road in Wadeville, Ekurhuleni, when her car was sprayed with bullets. A family member who asked not to be named said the woman’s husband, Richard Nkosi, was killed in the same manner and near the same intersection in 2018.

The family believes she was followed from her house. “She was going to meet up with her stokvel friends for their monthly money distribution. The police told us she was shot at about 8pm, but they only found her at 11pm in the bushes,” said the relative.

“Her husband was on his way home in 2018 when he was also shot and killed in his car. He was complaining about the fight over taxi routes in Zonkizizwe before he was murdered. When we saw her car last night, it had bullet holes everywhere. It showed that they wanted to make sure she was dead. The police found it in the bushes, and it looked like she drove it through [the bushes] as they [the killers] were firing shots at her.”

The relative said they did know who to turn to. “She was the only one left in charge of these taxis. We are really hurt as a family, and we don’t know who to trust now. Their three children are now orphans, just because somebody wants a taxi business,” she said.

The woman said the family had still not found closure after Nkosi’s murder. “It happened so long ago, but we are still healing as a family. We have not heard anything from the police, and no-one has been arrested. Families are not getting the justice they deserve.”

The SA National Taxi Council said Zulu’s killing deepens the cycle of violence plaguing the taxi industry. The council’s spokesperson Rebecca Phala said: “When killers begin targeting women, mothers, widows and caregivers, it shows a new low in this senseless violence.

This is not just an attack on individuals, it is an attack on families, stability, and the very fabric of our communities,” said the organisation's spokesperson Rebecca Phala. 

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