According to friends the deceased, identified as Ottoh Okoi (38), was watching soccer on his phone whilst at Diamond Lounge, a local tavern, when a man from the streets came in and stabbed him in the back with a sharp object.

Eyewitnesses recall how a shocked Mr Okoi tried to turn around to see who was stabbing him, only to be stabbed in the chest.

“He tried to hold on to the guy, but he was bleeding too much,” a witness who requested to stay anonymous, said.

Mr Okoi died before he could receive medical help.

Other people at the scene, chased after the stabber, who ran straight to the Middelburg police station. They accuse the police of protecting the murder suspect and preventing them from getting to them.

“This morning he is back on the street, so they must have let him go just after we left,” the witness said.

He said that they know the suspect because he is a ‘Nyaope boy’ who always hangs around the vicinity of Iraq Taxi Rank. They suspect that it was a case of mistaken identity as the deceased did not know or have any interaction with his murderer before his death.

The source said that foreign nationals are suffering in Middelburg.

“He was let go because he is a South African and he killed a foreigner,” he said.

Capt. Khanyisile Zwane, Middelburg police spokesperson confirmed that police are investigating a charge of murder.

About the allegation of letting the suspect go, Capt. Zwane said that police can never allow an attack on an individual in the police station, and that the murder was not reported at the time of the incident, so the man was not seen as a suspect in any crime.

The Middelburg police station is under CCTV surveillance and there is clear footage of the murder suspect. Capt. Zwane said that an arrest was imminent.