The police were searching for clues on Tuesday morning after Teazers boss Lolly Jackson was shot dead at a friend’s house in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg.
“We don’t know what the motive is at this stage,” said police spokesperson Colonel Eugene Opperman.
Ekurhuleni police spokesperson Sergeant Tsholofele Madumo said Jackson had sustained 15 gunshot wounds.
Beeld newspaper said the house was registered in the name of Georgios Toumbis, who put the phone down when contacted by a journalist.
The gunman was believed to have called the police to inform them he had shot Jackson and to give them the address of the house.
“Police got the call and then went to the premises and found the house locked. Officers summoned the owner from his business to come and open the premises,” said Opperman.
Jackson’s wife, Demi, had to be assisted by paramedics outside the house.
“Please, no, what was he doing here?” she cried, according to the Citizen.
Opperman said the police could not say if the shooter called from the scene of the murder.
Teazers spokesperson Sean Newman told reporters on the crime scene that Jackson “was a great man with a big heart who gave to charity”.
‘Bigot, racist, extortionist, megalomaniac’
But Jackson’s business rival Andrew Phillips had nothing good to say about him.
“I detested the man. He was trash — a bigot, racist, extortionist, megalomaniac. If there was a pie, he wanted the whole one. I won’t pretend I’m shedding a tear,” Phillips told the Star newspaper.
“I think the world is better off. He was pollution, there was no other way to describe him. The air has been purified. He was a nasty guy,” he added.
A receptionist at the Teazers strip club in Rivonia told the South African Press Association on Tuesday morning that it would be “business as usual” despite his death.
She said the phone rang “every second” as curious members of the public sought more information on the killing of the flamboyant businessman.
‘Love cars, Love all women’
“The phone is going off the hook now,” she said.
Meanwhile, internet users were turning to Facebook to convey their condolences to the family.
Tributes were streaming in on Jackson’s Facebook wall.
“R.I.P. Lolly. U were a legend… I hope they book these guys,” said Dragutin Marinkovic, while others shared similar sentiments.
His profile, which has over 2 500 friends, states that Jackson is “in an open relationship”, has a child called Manoli Jackson, that his hometown is Bedfordview, and that he attended Dawnview High.
“Love cars, Love all women,” he says on his personal information Facebook page.
Jackson’s last Facebook status update was at 9.28am on Monday.
“It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test,” he wrote.