johannesburg - The plot around the murder of North West billionaire Wandile Bozwana on Friday thickens with news emerging that gunmen attempted to kill his chief financial officer Pieter Brink two days later.
Bozwana was killed in a drive-by shooting near the Garsfontein off-ramp on the N1 highway on Friday. He had been travelling north from Joburg with colleague Mpho Baloyi, who was driving.
A silver-grey BMW M3 pulled up next to the car. A gunman fired at Bozwana in the passenger seat.
Twelve bullets were fired and nine of them hit Bozwana.
Baloyi was also hit but she managed to drive to Menlyn Park Shopping Centre for help.
They were taken to Netcare Unitas Hospital, where Bozwana died. Baloyi is still in hospital.
Two days later, at the same spot, an attempt was made on financial officer Brink’s life. A VW Polo pulled up next to him and he saw a man with a firearm. He heard a gunshot but managed to speed off.
Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini confirmed on Tuesday morning the police were investigating a case of murder and two attempted murders.
Meanwhile, Bozwana’s family is living in fear, wondering who is next.
Bozwana’s brother Benedict said they were concerned that no arrests had been made.
“Up to now there has been no feedback from the police and we live in fear knowing a killer could be amongst us,” he said.
“We don’t want to point fingers until someone is arrested – everyone is a suspect and we fear for our lives,” Benedict said.
Bozwana was a bitter rival of North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo. They had a long dispute over the allocation of tenders. Bozwana had accused the premier of giving major government tenders to his wife and friends, while terminating his contracts.
Bozwana’s death came three days after he and Mahumapelo were in the Constitutional Court in Braamfontein for a case involving a multimillion-rand tender for the construction of Brits Hospital.
Mahumapelo wanted the Constitutional Court to force Bozwana to return R30 million to the provincial government coffers and 44 vehicles he seized after the government failed to pay him R47m for his role in the construction of the hospital.
Bozwana obtained a seizure order against the Department of Public Works in February, which Mahumapelo challenged in the Constitutional Court.
Judgment was reserved.
Meanwhile the ANC in North West has issued a warning about linking Mahumapelo to Bozwana’s murder.
Mahumapelo had nothing to do with the murder, ANC provincial secretary Dakota Legoete said.
The ANC warned members after some took to social media with insinuations about the involvement of provincial leaders, especially Mahumapelo, in the murder.
Legoete lambasted opposition parties for allegedly linking Mahumapelo to the killing.
“We challenge those who continue to make spurious and unfounded assertions to refrain from feeding the social media but direct that information to the police, as they are the only credible entity working on such information.
“We want to place it on record that insinuations seeking to opportunistically implicate the ANC provincial government and the provincial chairperson, comrade Supra Mahumapelo, in his capacity as the premier, are just an attempt to besmirch the good name of the ANC in the province.”
Dennis Bloem of Cope said: “Now is the time to bring out the lie detector and to do thorough lifestyle audits on the politicians and officials.
“Corruption needs thick curtains. State power is therefore used to keep them closed.
“There is far too much that is going on in the provincial government of North West that needs to be peeped at behind the curtains,” Bloem said.