MOKOPANE – TAXI wars are heating up in the area.
This, as another man fell victim after being shot and killed in Mokopane last Saturday morning in less than 10 days after the murder of the well known taxi owner Sello Gideon Fatane.
Charles Mgidi, a proud member of the Mogalakwena Residents Association, (MRA), was shot in his chest at the Caltex garage in Nelson Mandela Street at around 08:45, and rushed to the Mokopane Hospital where he passed away.
It is alleged that an argument broke out between Charles and the three suspects, when the shooting occurred. The police confiscated four fire arms one from the victim and three from the suspects reported Const Mmadikgale Masingi, spokesperson for the Mokopane police, in a media statement. According to a media statement by the MRA, “Mgidi and other members of the MRA went to inspect the status of the taxi rank at the Caltex garage, after receiving complaints that the chairperson of the Mahwelereng Taxi Amalgamated, Sam Matjila, pushed members of the community who were transporting the general public to Fatanes memorial service”. “Upon their arrival they found Matjila and his group of members heavily armed, and they shot Mgidi in the presence of the public.” According to insiders, taxi wars are behind the killings. Fatane was shot once in the head and twice in the neck on March 27 in front of his house in Fourie Street and no arrests have yet been made for his murder.
Following the murder of Fatane in the early hours of April 1, Suricate Armed Response was called out to Ruiter Street at the Mahwelereng Taxi Association where two taxis were set on fire with petrol bombs and one of the fire extinguishers exploded. According to Suricate, there was a heavy presence of armed taxi owners.
The matter was handed over to the police.
According to the chairperson of the MRS, Percy Nketse, the matter is politically linked.
“This is definitely not taxi violence, as Charles Mgidi, the late Piet Pale and the late Danny Baloyi who were all shot and killed, was not part of the taxi associations.
“This has to do with the politics regarding the Mogalakwena Municipality.”
“We believe that this is part of the activity of the so called mayor, Thalfi Mashamaite, in order to entrench himself and his political groups in using the taxi mafias in the Mogalakwena area,” stated the MRA in a media statement.
There has been an ongoing battle at the Mogalakwena Municipality since November 2014 and services came to a halt for at least three months.
A private security company was appointed until Pravin Gordhan, minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs,(CoGTA) with Makoma Makhurupetje, MEC of the department of cooperative and traditional affiars,(CoGHSTA) stepped in and appointed a intervention team on March 25.
“We are not happy with this intervention team, we believe they are part of another agenda,” stated Nketse on Wednesday morning.
Three men, Patric Sekhu, Desmond Mashabane and Samuel Matjila were arrested for the murder of Mgidi.
They appeared before the Mokopane magistrate court on Tuesday morning.
The formal bail application was on Thursday (April 9).
