One of many bullet holes in the car Kenny Kunene was travelling in when he was shot at.
Well-known businessman and socialite Kenny Kunene was allegedly shot at while driving a car in Johannesburg on Tuesday night.
It’s possible it was just a hijacking gone wrong, although there is speculation it may be related to media stories about Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Several bullets were allegedly fired at the car, many of which left visible damage on a blue BMW. Kunene was travelling with a female passenger. No one was injured.
According to Kunene, his friend Sunday Independent editor Steven Motale had been meant to be travelling in the car with him, but bodyguards moved Motale to another vehicle prior to their departure.
A shaken Kunene told The Citizen: “I reversed to get away. When I hit the pavement, they came and shot at us.”
Kunene has been trending since, with most of the comments on Twitter saying they’re not buying his story.
They reckon the Sushi King is apparently trying to hype up the Ramaphosa email leaks since they don’t seem to have done much damage to his reputation. Cosatu, Ekurhuleni ANC members and a faction of the ANCWL are still rallying behind CR17.
Twitter has argued the shooting is meant to paint Ramaphosa as the bad guy since the email leaks made him look like the victim of a smear campaign.
The number of shots fired (initially reported as 21), though police said 12 casings were found, has also left social media users doubting if the hit was real, saying there were too many shots fired for them to miss both people in the car. No bullet shattered any of the windows either, so Twitter says all of this is evidence the shooters were given strict instructions not to shoot anywhere close to where the occupants of the car would get hurt.
Kunene was quick to tell anyone who was listening that he had exchanged the car with Motale, but Twitter says that detail is just “too convenient”.
Even EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu has taken to social media to sarcastically complain about the crime in South Africa.
“ANN7 and NewAge say Steve Motale and Kenny Kunene survived a planned hit and bullets were shot towards their car? Crime is bad South Africa. Bad,” he tweeted, calling for Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to act on it.
Some have, however, supported Kunene, saying he would never put his life in danger to score political points. In fact, “white monopoly capital” has divided South Africans to a point where we don’t care about each other any more, they argued.
Check out some of the comments on Twitter: