The family of a female taxi owner who was gunned down in front of her 13-year-old daughter believes her killing may have been a hit.

Queen Cindi, 50, was shot dead at her home in Evaton, south of Johannesburg, when two gunmen stormed her house last week.

She was shot in the head twice.

The men are said to have entered her home shortly after a driver returned one of her two minibus taxis.

The assailants first approached her daughter, Nelisiwe, and asked her where her mother was.

She told them her mother was in the bathroom and they apparently went in and shot her twice, before making off with R10,000.

"It was definitely a hit," Simon Cindi, the taxi owner's father, told Sowetan yesterday.

"My daughter always complained that her life was under threat. She told me numerous times that she would be killed. The money they took, that's nothing. That was just to make it seem as if it was a robbery when it wasn't."

The 77-year-old said his daughter had been a taxi owner since the mid 1990s.

"So many people in the taxi industry get killed on a daily basis. These people went straight to her house, went inside and shot her right in front of my granddaughter. If they wanted the money, they would have taken it because there was a woman and a girl in there, they didn't pose any harm," he said.

Cindi described his daughter as a God-fearing woman who attended church every Sunday.

"She was a lovely daughter. All she wanted to do was to put food on the table and be able to take care of her children. She did not have a fleet of taxis. She was not after any position in her association. Why would you kill her, especially in front of her daughter?"

Police spokesperson Const Busisiwe Sango said no arrests had been made and that police were investigating a case of murder and robbery.

The deceased taxi boss was a member of the Vaal Witwatersrand Taxi Association which was embroiled in violence recently. The violence erupted as a result of its refusal to align with the National Taxi Alliance or the SA National Taxi Council.

The association's interim chairperson Oupa Stevens told Sowetan he was not aware of any threats made to the deceased taxi boss.

"The only incident that I am aware of was when Queen was chased from our offices by other members. She did not hold any position and was not heavily involved in the association's politics," Stevens said.

He admitted, however, that his association was involved in factional fights over the years but said calm had been restored. "Things were bad in the past and we would understand if this death happened in that era. But I cannot say that her death was a result of a squabble from the association."