Luke Fleurs was a young man with a bright future. He was a 24-year-old Kaizer Chiefs defender who made a dream move from SuperSport United to Amakhosi a few months ago. He looked to have the world ahead of him in his burgeoning football career.
But on Wednesday his young life was cowardly snuffed out by wanton criminals in a botched hijacking in Honeydew, Johannesburg.
According to police, Fleurs was driving his red VW Golf 8 to a petrol station on 14th Avenue on Wednesday night and while waiting to be attended to, he was confronted by two armed males driving a BMW 1 Series.
Spokesperson Lt Col Mavela Masondo said the criminals pointed at Fleurs with a firearm and took him out of his vehicle. They then shot him once in the upper body and fled with his car.
His killing has sent shockwaves across the country and rightly appalled many who reflected on another shining light in football being dimmed by marauding criminals with no regard for human life.
Fleurs’s murder is one of many such alarming cases of brutal violence visited upon South Africans that are recorded in police statistics quarterly. According to figures released by police minister Bheki Cele recently, more than 7,000 people were murdered in SA. This means on average that more than 80 people are killed each day.
Every single one of these murders is a painful reminder of the devastating impact of violence in our society.
It is not just the number of people that are killed every day that is horrifying but equally is the cold, callous and brazen way with no regard for the value of human life that calls for action to deal with this scourge.
We need long-term measures to reduce these high levels of violence that have claimed far too many innocent lives. We welcome Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Gen Tommy Mthombeni’s appointment of a team of detectives to investigate and search for Fleurs’s murderers.
When the killers are found, a strong message must be sent by our justice system that such barbaric acts will not be tolerated.
But above all, for Fleurs’s sake and other victims of the crimes, a clear strategy to fight and prevent these senseless killings will go a long way in saving more lives.
SOWETAN | Send strong message to Fleurs's killers
Image: Kaizer Chiefs Twitter
Luke Fleurs was a young man with a bright future. He was a 24-year-old Kaizer Chiefs defender who made a dream move from SuperSport United to Amakhosi a few months ago. He looked to have the world ahead of him in his burgeoning football career.
But on Wednesday his young life was cowardly snuffed out by wanton criminals in a botched hijacking in Honeydew, Johannesburg.
According to police, Fleurs was driving his red VW Golf 8 to a petrol station on 14th Avenue on Wednesday night and while waiting to be attended to, he was confronted by two armed males driving a BMW 1 Series.
Spokesperson Lt Col Mavela Masondo said the criminals pointed at Fleurs with a firearm and took him out of his vehicle. They then shot him once in the upper body and fled with his car.
His killing has sent shockwaves across the country and rightly appalled many who reflected on another shining light in football being dimmed by marauding criminals with no regard for human life.
Fleurs’s murder is one of many such alarming cases of brutal violence visited upon South Africans that are recorded in police statistics quarterly. According to figures released by police minister Bheki Cele recently, more than 7,000 people were murdered in SA. This means on average that more than 80 people are killed each day.
Every single one of these murders is a painful reminder of the devastating impact of violence in our society.
It is not just the number of people that are killed every day that is horrifying but equally is the cold, callous and brazen way with no regard for the value of human life that calls for action to deal with this scourge.
We need long-term measures to reduce these high levels of violence that have claimed far too many innocent lives. We welcome Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Gen Tommy Mthombeni’s appointment of a team of detectives to investigate and search for Fleurs’s murderers.
When the killers are found, a strong message must be sent by our justice system that such barbaric acts will not be tolerated.
But above all, for Fleurs’s sake and other victims of the crimes, a clear strategy to fight and prevent these senseless killings will go a long way in saving more lives.
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