The South African government had learned with ”shock” of the murder of a South African student on holiday in Zimbabwe, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.
Conan Thomas was shot dead by three unidentified gunmen at Hillside Dams, a family resort in Bulawayo on Sunday, Inspector Langa Ndlovu of the Zimbabwe Republic Police confirmed. No suspects had been arrested.
”We learned of the killing with shock and we are saddened by it,” said DFA spokesperson Nomfanelo Kota.
”It is purely a criminal matter they (Thomas and the people with whom he was travelling) were robbed. The Zimbabwean police are investigating it as a criminal matter. It is not a political matter,” Kota said.
The South African government has endured much criticism — internal and external — for its ”quiet diplomacy” on the violent political strife in Zimbabwe. Thomas was touring the resort centre in the company of his girlfriend, her father and her two young sisters. He was a sound and lighting student at Allenby College in the Boksburg area of Gauteng.
Leon Bezuidenhout, the Thomas’ girlfriend’s father said the gang of three assailants caught up with them as they were sight-seeing around the Upper Hillside Dam.
”As they drew level with us, one of the guys pulled out a pistol and shot Thomas without saying anything. We were ordered to lie down as the gunmen took off our shoes, wallets containing cash in various denominations and jewellery in the form of diamond rings. They then fled into the bush.
”We tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Thomas but he died as we watched,” said Bezuidenhout.
The tourists had arrived in Bulawayo a day before and were supposed to have left on the day disaster struck.
”We stayed on because Thomas had insisted on seeing the Hillside Dams since this was his first time in Zimbabwe. We did not know that we were going to watch him die like that. The girls are so traumatised,” said Bezuidenhout.
Although the motive of the attack has not been established, the assailants took wallets containing US$180, R700 and more cash in other denominations, credit cards, cheque books and diamond rings.
Thomas’ body is still at a private funeral parlour in Bulawayo. It will be flown to South Africa as soon as funeral arrangements are completed. Bezuidenhout said Thomas’ death was the second blow to the family in two months, following the death of a brother who was struck by lightning in Johannesburg two months ago.
Security around Zimbabwe’s tourist destination has deteriorated badly since February 2000 when armed Zanu-PF supporters and veterans and of the 1970s liberation war invaded commercial farms and killed commercial farmers, an act that kick-started ongoing violence.
It has since spread to the countryside and tourist resorts. Early this year, an Australian tourist was stabbed to death in the northern resort of Victoria Falls.
The Zimbabwe government, which has been accused of promoting violence with impunity, has consistently denied that there is lawlessness in the country. – Sapa-AFP