Johannesburg – A Soweto family have been left shattered by the death of 34-year-old father Eugene Tshililo who was shot by hijackers outside Faranani Primary School in Protea Glen, Soweto, on Tuesday.
Tshililo was at the school to fetch his 7-year-old son. He was shot dead while trying to prevent a hijacking outside the school.
His son witnessed the shooting.
According to authorities, unknown armed suspects attempted to hijack a school transport vehicle that was fetching learners from the school on Tuesday afternoon when Tshililo intervened in an attempt to assist the driver.
Felicia Kayise, Tshililo’s cousin and the family’s spokesperson, said it has been a difficult time for the family. She described Tshililo as a quiet, shy person who stayed out of trouble.
“I am shocked to hear what happened to him but honestly I never expected this. He is a very kind person, this should not have happened to him,” she said.
Kayise said it was Tshililo’s son who explained what had happened.
“The whole incident happened while his son was watching,” she said.
“You can imagine a 7-year-old boy, he is so traumatised. He is shattered, broken, he is a mess,” she said.
Tshililo’s mother, Sarah Tshililo, said her son was the only one she had hoped would take the family further.
She said her son left her with his family, a wife and two children, and it was now up to her to take care of them.
Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane visited the school and family on Wednesday.
“The fact that they (the suspects) could come to a school and do what they’ve done yesterday is a demonstration that they are heartless.
“A parent, obviously like any other parent, fought back because he was also protecting his own child at the same time and cruelly they murdered the parent in cold blood,” Chiloane said.
“We have dispatched our psychosocial support for learners, educators and school staff because I know that they are uncomfortable to know that a murder took place outside their school,” he added.
The MEC said he would communicate with the Community Safety Department and request that schools be guarded by police and “if there is no police station inside then those mobile ones need to be closer to the schools”.
He called on the community to help the police and the department to make sure that schools were safe and secure.
Another witness who was also transporting children from school spoke to IOL on Wednesday. She declined to be named.
“I only heard gunshots and when I turned, I saw that they had already shot someone and they were already demanding car keys from one of the school transport drivers.
“I am traumatised. I did not sleep because I could still see the man on the ground with bullet wounds,” she said.
The chairperson of the Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture, Elleck Nchabeleng, offered the committee’s condolences to Tshililo’s family.
Nchabeleng said criminals had become so brazen, “it seems schools are no longer the trusted safe spaces they once were”.
“We are reeling in shock with how this incident occurred and that a parent had to die in broad daylight having committed no crime. Criminals no longer hide their acts, and that calls for drastic action against illegal firearms and thuggery,” said Nchabeleng.
He said it was becoming clear that communities needed to mobilise and rally together against crime.
“With the levels of lawlessness we are witnessing and the ease with which guns are attained and used against innocent civilians, soon the country will be run by criminal syndicates,” he said.
Nchabeleng added that law enforcement was clearly overwhelmed and helpless in the face of violent crimes and he called on the communities to stand up to fight crime.
Current Affairs