Johannesburg – South African Minister of Tourism, Lindiwe Sisulu, said in a media briefing on Wednesday that the killing of the German tourist by a group of “ruthless criminals” at Numbi Road near White River on Monday was a “calculated killing”.
Sisulu spent the entire day with the tourism board and the deceased’s family in order to obtain all of the information with regard to what happened.
“We needed to attend to it to make sure it never happens in our land again,” said Sisulu.
She said that the family of the deceased was traumatised.
“Firstly, they were traumatised by the incident itself but secondly they were traumatised by how the story had been conveyed in the media.
“The wife of the deceased was very upset about how the matter was being reported in the German media because the children out there were not aware that their father had died and when it was conveyed to them it was not conveyed in a way that she would have liked,” she said.
“She had hoped the story would have remained under wraps,” Sisulu said.
Sisulu, who was accompanied by an advisor and the German ambassador Andreas Peschke during the media briefing, allowed the advisor to read out a letter from the family, giving their account of what had taken place.
According to the letter, three men armed with pistols jumped out of a car and walked towards the car in which the tourists were travelling.
“As the driver saw the men approach, he unlocked the car which then caused the release of a shot,” the letter read.
“The fully armed persons continued to walk towards the car… It was clear that the driver had died, however, given that he had the car in reverse and his foot on the accelerator, the car accelerated backwards and hit the wall behind them,” it added.
Meanwhile, Police Minister Bheki Cele believed that Mpumalanga police would soon “crack the case” following the identification of three people of interest in connection with the case.
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Picture: Twitter/ @LindiweSisuluSA
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
