Thabiso Nare, the brother of journalist Godknows Nare, who died in a hail of bullets in Florida, on the West Rand, on April 17 does not believe Godknows “was in the wrong place at the wrong time”, Roodepoort Record reports.
Thabiso told the Record this past Friday, May 5, that he suspected a family member might be involved in the killing of his brother. Although he elaborated on his clailms, he asked the community newspaper to not publish all the information yet, as he was still going to hand it over to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid). It is believed that he will do so before end of today, May 9.
Godknows allegedly had marital problems. Colleagues of his also said he was “fearing for his life”.
He was shot by metro police members at the corner of Hull Street and 4th Avenue when he went to fetch blankets from his sister.
The metro police claimed they were monitoring a hijacked vehicle close to Godknows’ vehicle, and when they approached, shots allegedly were fired from the journalist’s vehicle. They returned fire and hit the journalist four times.
But Ipid spokesperson Moses Dlamini said they could not find any proof that Godknows shot at the metro police.
READ MORE:WATCH: Police shoot journalist during protest against illegal land grabs
In additions, Nare’s wife, nearly a month after her husband was allegedly murdered by the Metro Police, Silibele Khumalo finally spoke to the Record on Sunday, 7 May.
Khumalo said: “Prior to the day Nare was killed, him being a fervent member of the ZCC church, left at 3am, heading for Moria and spent the weekend there and returned at 10am on 17 April. At about 6pm, Nare went back to his sister and fetched his three children. After dropping them off, he said he was going to Diepsloot and then to Rosebank to meet another journalist colleague. But at about 7pm he said he was too tired to go to Rosebank and that he was coming home.”
It was then that Khumalo asked him to pick up some blankets from his sister. What happened next is still the subject of speculation.
According to the Metro Police, they were monitoring a hijacked vehicle. They claim there were two other men in Nare’s vehicle and that when they approached the vehicle the occupants started shooting at them, yet an eyewitness said that Nare arrived alone. One of the other men was also wounded in the alleged shootout and one managed to flee.
It is alleged, another version has Nare climbing out of the vehicle with his hands raised before he was shot, but Khumalo says for now she believes only that he went to his sister and that she does not want to speculate.
At about 12.30pm she decided to go to bed, and although worried, brushed it off because the nature of Nare’s work meant that things would often come up at odd hours.
Only the next day did a detective from the Florida Police call her and ask her to come to the detective offices. She was then told of the shootout and her husband’s death.
“I just want two things – justice and answers. Justice won’t bring him back, but I want answers for when the three little ones grow up,” concluded the grieving widow.
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– Caxton News Service
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