By Anita Dangazele
The Easter weekend in the Eastern Cape was darkened by a cloud of tragedy, with nine people losing their lives on the province’s roads and two separate shooting incidents resulting in two fatalities and three people severely injured, including a teenage girl who was walking home from a nearby shop.
On Friday evening, in a shooting incident in Kwazakhele, the owner of Gqeberha’s famous “Oom Coke” tavern was shot multiple times, leaving a man and a woman who were with him severely wounded.
Police spokesperson Sandra Janse van Rensburg said Philasande “Coke” Jakavula, 53, was shot dead at about 9:45pm on Friday when gunmen opened fire on a taxi he was driving.
“While Kwazakhele police were busy patrolling they noticed a white Toyota Quantum minibus with bullet holes,” she said.
She said police also found a man and woman lying next to the taxi with gunshot wounds.
A Kariega mother was shot and killed on Saturday evening as she was walking home from a nearby shop.
The mother of two, Keziah Kleinbooi, 23, was returning home from a nearby shop with a 16-year-old girl when they were shot by unknown suspects. The teenager was taken to hospital after sustaining several gunshot wounds.
Police said the motive was suspected to be gang-related.
On the same day, nine people lost their lives in separate road accidents. The first accident claimed five lives when a taxi crashed into a heavy duty truck on the N2 between Peddie and Makhanda on Saturday morning.
By evening the number of fatalities reported on the province’s roads had increased to nine when the driver of a Toyota Fortuner carrying eight people lost control and overturned.
The accident claimed four lives, leaving four others injured on the R411 road in Mqanduli.
Police are investigating a case of culpable homicide.
The weekend also claimed the life of 19-year-old Lukhanyo Kwikwi, who died in a house fire at Gqeberha’s Westering suburb in the early hours of Saturday.
Pictured above: The bullet riddled Quantum taxi where the body of a Gqeberha taxi was found on Friday evening.
Image source: Supplied
