Five men are expected to appear in court in connection with the recent murder and hijacking of two meter taxi owners.
|||Durban - Five men are expected to appear in court on Tuesday in connection with the murder and hijacking of two meter taxi owners in the Cato Manor area.
Police Detective Warrant Officer David Nzama led a police team into the Cato Crest area last night. Two of the men arrested are accused of the Bristow Crescent murder and hijacking. The other three are linked to several hijackings in uMbilo.
Nzama said police were exploring links to the second taxi owner’s death.
Police said the men operated by hiring private taxis from Durban central to Cato Manor. En route they would pull out firearms and rob the taxi driver, and in these cases, they killed them. On Wednesday night, meter taxi owner BL Gwaba, 31, was found dead in Bristow Crescent in Mayville.
According to Mayville Community Policing Forum sector chairperson Sam Adam, residents of a nearby block of flats, Castle Rock, heard a shot, then a car speeding off.
Residents found the taxi owner lying dead in the road. Adam said the man had a bullet wound to his forehead. Police found Gwaba’s car abandoned at the traffic lights nearby.
On Thursday night, Jhavirlall “Bunny” Deodutt, 57, owner of Bunny cabs and a resident of Phoenix, was found shot in a parking lot next to Buckingham Road in Bonela.
Police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said Deodutt was shot three times and robbed of his vehicle.
Naicker said he was taken to King Edward Hospital where he died of his injuries.
Naicker said the vehicle had been recovered the next day.
Deodutt had been a prominent Durban taxi cab owner since 1978.
His daughter, Rekha Deodutt, said the family would meet police detectives soon to find out what had happened.
“All we have heard was that his car was recovered and that the battery from the car had been stolen.”
Rekha said her father had won a court order a month ago to pick up passengers in front of the North Beach hotels after the taxi rank was scheduled to move to the back of the hotels.
Daily News