Taxi murder investigated

Police are investigating the murder of a taxi driver shot dead at the Bellville rank last week.

A passenger suffered a gunshot wound in the incident on Thursday July 12.

“The driver died on the scene after being fatally shot in the head and face three times,” said Bellville police spokeswoman, Colonel Fienie Nimb.

“Anyone with any information about this fatal shooting incident is kindly requested to contact Crime Stop.” The police said it was still unclear who had shot the driver and why, and their investigation was ongoing.

The woman who was hit in her left leg by the stray bullet fell in front of the dead man’s minibus taxi, which was still moving and rode over her before hitting a pole and coming to a stop.

She was rushed to Tygerberg Hospital where she is recovering.

Police say the dead man is believed to have been an illegal taxi operator as none of the taxi associations in the area claimed to have him as a member.

The shooting comes less than a month after a taxi driver was shot dead in Durbanville(“Taxi driver shot dead,” Northern News, June 28) amid warring over routes between operators associated with the Congress of Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) and the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) in Delft, Nyanga and Khayelitsha that has seen at least 15 deaths in recent weeks.

In the Durbanville shooting, an unidentified man fired several rounds inside the taxi, killing the driver, as the vehicle was passing the corner of Kendal and Durbanville roads on Saturday morning June 21.

Two passenger escaped unharmed. Durbanville police spokesperson Captain Marchelle Rhode said the motive for that shooting was unclear. Police are investigating and have not made any arrests.