Family wants justice after cold-blooded murder of Mr D biker
A total of 21 cases were recorded in October alone, up from the 12 cases in September, and at least 12 cases were reported between November 1 and 24.
The aggrieved family and friends of the delivery motorcycle rider who was fatally shot in a hijacking in Comet are desperately seeking justice.
The 49-year-old father of four, Julius Jenala of Boksburg North, who worked for the Takealot’s Mr D Boksburg hub, was fatally shot just below his chest while riding his delivery bike on Main Reef Road on the evening of November 16.
Jenala, who originally hails from Mulanje, a town in the Southern Region of Malawi, was at the time on his way home in Second Street, travelling from his last delivery trip for the day.
After being shot, he fell in the middle of the intersection of Main Reef and Pretoria roads, where the attackers took his bike and his personal belongings, and left him there to die.
Good Samaritans who spotted the body lying on the busy intersection used their vehicles to barricade the spot where Jenala’s body was, in order to protect it from being run over by passing vehicles.
Family members and his employer said they arrived at the scene to find the unresponsive body of Jenala lying on the road before he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The body was removed to the state mortuary hours later for further investigation.
As the family continues grieving over the tragic death of Jenala, they are asking anyone who may have information on the attack to come forward.
A family spokesperson Nelson Charlie, said while the pain will not go away, the perpetrators need to pay for what they did.
“We will never find closure until justice is done. This was a very shocking thing and was difficult. It has left all of us shaken because we never thought something like this would happen to him,” said Charlie.
Charlie pointed out that he was with the deceased around 17:00 when he was called out to do his last food delivery trip for the day – which turned out to be his last trip before someone took his life.
“He told me he would be back to see me in 20 minutes. However, around 8pm, I received a call from one of his colleagues saying my brother had been killed. Yes, I was aware that their bikes were of late being targeted, but I never thought that someone would take someone’s life just like that.”
Charlie pointed out that his brother had previously managed to escape an attempted hijacking as he was leaving a residential property in Witfield where he had gone to deliver food.
Charlie described Jenala as a great man, a God-fearing person, a hardworking man, a loving husband and a father of four. He was the sole breadwinner – providing for his own family and his aged parents living in Malawi.
Jenala had told his brother Charlie that he was planning to spend Christmas with his family in Malawi and was just about two months away from celebrating his 50th birthday on January 19.
His body was on Monday transported to Malawi to be buried there, following a memorial service held at his place in Boksburg North on November 26.
Police seeking help tracking down the suspect
A few days after the deadly hijacking, thieves broke into a property in Boksburg North and stole four bikes. In response to that the police and a tracking company managed to bust what appears to be a chop-shop garage in the Angelo informal settlement– where they found the four stolen motorbikes, stripped and broken up for their parts.
At the scene, officers arrested a man believed to be one of the suspected kingpins of a syndicate behind cross-border motorcycle theft and hijacking.
However, the police confirmed no suspect has been arrested in connection with the deadly hijacking and Jenala’s bike was still missing.
Investigators are appealing to anyone with information to come forward.
You may contact the Boksburg police anonymously on 011 841 6844/6845 or 082 575 1740.
Delivery bikers under siege, suffer injustices
While Takealot’s Mr D Boksburg hub management denounced the escalating attacks on delivery bikers, they also resented what they described as relentless injustices and prejudice suffered by the delivery bikers, particularly foreign nationals, at the hands of some authorities.
According to Paul Stanley from the East Rand Mall hub, some of their Mr D drivers are foreign nationals who, despite being in the country legally and employed in line with the laws relating to the regulations of employing foreign nationals, are unfairly treated by some authorities.
He said there are several previous cases where even police were reluctant to assist attacked drivers, apparently because of the prejudices directed against people from other countries.
Stanley revealed they used to, on average, record three to four cases of either robberies or hijackings per month, but the cases have skyrocketed in recent months. A total of 21 cases were recorded in October alone, up from the 12 cases in September, and at least 12 cases were reported between November 1 and 24.
The hub management said they are prepared to work in partnership with the local police to curb the scourge of robberies and hijackings.
“We have to do something because apart from the material things there are people’s lives involved here. These criminals are not just trying to rob the drivers, but they open fire on the guys who are just trying to make an honest living. Julius has been with us for over five years and was the kindest and most amazing man I have ever known in my life. All that he ever did was work very hard.“
Stanley added two of their drivers were also shot at in Comet about a week before Julius was killed on Main Reef Road.
In these incidents, one rider was shot five times and is still in the ICU. The second driver is now discharged from the hospital.
“Now most of my drivers are refusing to work at night, which is understandable because their lives are now at serious risk, and they have got families to look after.
“We have certain areas that are blacklisted because we identified it as no-go areas. If we don’t deal with the issue at hand, we will end up with many people without access to the services we render.”
Stanley stated he asked his counterparts in the other hubs, including Benoni and Bedfordview, if they had seen an escalation in crimes against the delivery bikers and their answer was no.
“This is an indication that there is a syndicate operating in the proximity of our hub.
Bikes are smuggled across the borders
According to one of the tracking companies contracted to provide tracking services for Mr D’s scooters and were involved in the recovery of the four bikes in the Angelo informal settlement, they have found that with the hijackings, 90% of the bikes get stripped and sold as parts, and 80% of these parts are smuggled to Mozambique and other neighbouring countries.
The company said in one of the recent cases, they found a stolen bike in Mozambique used by a pastor to travel between his home and church.
How the bikes leave the country undetected remains a mystery.
Also Read: Possible breakthrough: officers pounce on suspect in spate of delivery bike hijackings
