A man in an overcoat fired several shots at Sidney Jabulani Msibi, 31, as he helped a friend close his Pimville shop on Tuesday night. Msibi was abducted from Swaziland by South African security police in 1986 and released from custody after his lawyer's threatened court action.
According to an eyewitness to this week's shooting, the assailant was standing five metres from Msibi when the shots rang out. Msibi was certified dead on arrival at Baragwanath HospitaI. According to Msibi's friend, Phillip Makgene, part-owner of the Helpmekaar Dairy, the murdered man was helping him roll up his shop shutters at about 7.30pm when shots were fired from the pavement close by.
Msibi had been standing with his back to the street. As Msibi fell to the ground, face up and bleeding profusely from the head, the gunman fled into the night. Makgene, whose vision was blurred by bright lights outside an adjoining shop, said he saw no other detail of the gunman. The shooting took place in a busy shopping complex in front of several witnesses, but none was able to recognise the killer.
Msibi had been living with his parents in Pimville at the time of his death. He worked as an draughtsman and had been planning to start a construction business with another friend in the area. He had come to Makgene's dairy on the night of his death to borrow a generator. After the two men had loaded the generator into Makgene's car, Msibi began to help roll up the shutter. Next thing he was dead "It happened like lightning," said Makgene. "I could hardly see the culprit when he disappeared in the dark. I cannot tell if he was masked or not. Makgene rushed to inform Msibi's parents and returned to find his friend bleeding from the head.
Msibi's mother, Edna Gigaba said her son had no enemies except the police who had detained him twice after his release from custody in 1986. Msibi had been abducted outside an Mbabane school in June 1986 and placed in a South African prison as an Emergency detainee. The abduction took place in full view of a group of women who screamed when they saw Msibi being taken away by 10 men wearing plainclothes. The men, who were travelling in three cars, handcuffed and gagged Msibi and placed him in leg irons before taking him across the border. He was eventually released after his family lawyers accused the South African police of abducting Msibi and threatened court action to have him released. It emerged that he had been Tambo's personal bodyguard.
After his release from custody, Msibi was detained twice. His lawyers met with senior security police officers and he was not detained again. Msibi will be buried next Sunday from his parents' Pimville home. He is survived by his parents, two younger brothers and a sister, as well as a wife in Swaziland and a two- year-old son, Thabiso.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
