MBOMBELA – The man who was gunned down in front of shoppers at the Promenade centre on Thursday has died.
According to police spokesman Capt Dawie Pretorius, Mr Elphin Nkosi (61) died at Rob Ferreira Hospital on Saturday.
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Lowvelder reported on Friday that Nkosi was gunned down in front of midday shoppers, while a woman also died from unknown causes at the Promenade at around 11:45.
Mr Deda Jan Mashele (57) was arrested for the shooting shortly after the incident. He appeared in court on a charge of attempted murder on Friday. The charge has now changed to murder.
Const Bonisile Thwala, who arrested Mashele, told Lowvelder afterwards about the remarkable events that led to his capture. This short, petite officer was on leave at the time.
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She was walking past the ATM at the centre when she saw a crowd gathering around two men. She saw the men pushing each other and arguing about what seemed to be a money dispute.
Nkosi’s daughter, Khethiwe, also confirmed to the Promenade Shopping Centre manager
Ms Precious Khumalo, that the shooting started after her father wanted money back from the gunman, which had been lent in December and Mashele refused to pay back.
“I then saw them both on the ground scuffling, and then I heard the gunshots,” said Thwala.
She said Nkosi stood up and then collapsed. According to Thwala, Nkosi was apparently a well-known loan shark operating in Mbombela.
She said she then saw the suspect walking away.
“I gave chase. He didn’t see me following him. I ran past him and luckily got to the police station gate. I stopped a marked SAPS vehicle. My first reaction was to tell them to phone for help for the victim,”she said.
Thwala then turned around and confronted Mashele. “I identified myself as a police officer as I was on leave and in plain clothes. I didn’t even have a weapon on me. He is very tall and looked scary,” she said.
She added that when he tried to resist arrest, she bravely tackled the armed suspect.
“He relented and allowed me to arrest him, so I escorted him to the station,” she said.
This mother of three said her police training just kicked in instinctively and she felt she needed to capture him for everyone’s safety.
Various medical emergency staff and security had immediately responded to the scene.
ER24 Medical Services branch manager, Mr Greg Wilcox, who attended to the victim on the scene, said their team had the necessary life-support equipment to attend to the man’s injuries.
Wilcox said they had stabilised Nkosi for transportation at that time and Hi-Tech Medical Emergency transported him to the hospital.
Wilcox said the woman, Ms Zanele Mahlabane (34) from Mkhulu, who died had allegedly collapsed in the pharmacy and was taken outside near the gunshot victim by her so-called friends.
“We also attended to her, but unfortunately she tragically passed away on the scene,” he said. Pretorius said her post-mortem would also be conducted this week as police had opened an inquiry into her death.
The case against Mashele was postponed for bail application. He remains in custody.
“Our deepest, heartfelt condolences go to both families of the deceased (Mahlabane and Nkosi). Unfortunately it’s not possible for us to search each and every shopper or customers for any weapons as we are an open shopping centre.
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“We always try to provide people with a safe environment to do their shopping as we have security personnel and they were alert during the incident.
“Promenade Shopping Centre is still a safe place to shop, visit doctors and sleep at the Promenade Hotel. This was just one of those things that we were not in control of,” concluded Khumalo.
