A minibus taxi driver was beaten to death by commuters after his out-of-control vehicle killed a taxi rank manager.
|||Durban - A Durban minibus taxi driver was beaten to death by commuters after his out-of-control taxi killed a taxi rank manager and seriously injured two commuters and his conductor this week.
The rank manager who died was James Bantu Khoza, 53, who had worked at the CBD rank for 25 years.
The accident happened in Dennis Hurley (Queen) Street on Monday afternoon.
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said the taxi knocked over two women on its approach to the rank.
Witnesses said the taxi then veered into a bus where it lost its sliding door and injured the conductor. The driver then drove into the rank where he knocked over Khoza and rammed into another taxi.
The driver was attacked by commuters with beer bottles and rocks and died at the scene.
On Tuesday
acting rank manager King Zwane said the atmosphere was “very sombre” and “everyone was in shock”.
A hawker, who did not want to be identified, said the taxi had approached at a “very high speed”.
“We heard Bab’u Khoza say: ‘Slow down. What’s the rush?’ We then heard two loud bangs, only to realise that the taxi had crushed him.”
Khoza’s brother, Sboniso, said the family had been dealt a major blow. Khoza is survived by his wife and five children.
In a separate accident near Pongola, six people died and 35 were injured on Tuesday when a tyre burst on a bus travelling along the N2 and the vehicle slammed into a wall.
At the weekend five died in a head-on collision on the South Coast and a cyclist died when he was knocked over on the R102 on the North Coast.
The Mercury