Pretoria - Police are investigating the gruesome murder of Mabopane socialite, Jerry Ditshego, who was shot at close range by an unknown gunman on Friday night next to the BeeHive pub in Block B.
Tshwane district police spokesperson Warrant Officer Johan van Dyk told the Pretoria News yesterday that Ditshego was talking to a woman outside the pub next to a car when someone called his name.
“When he turned to look he was shot several times. The woman who was with him took cover,” he said.
The woman told the police that Ditshego fell on the ground and the suspect kept on shooting.
“The suspect fled the scene in a Polo (and its) registration (is) unknown,” Van Dyk said.
At least 19 shell casings of a rifle – 11 of a pistol and one live rifle – were found at the crime scene.
Police said the suspect was unknown and an investigation was under way with all the leads being followed up.
Ditshego’s cold-blooded killing has sent shock waves through the community, with many worried that gun violence was on the rise in the township. Ditshego was gunned down almost three weeks after Bacardi musician Itumeleng Mosoeu, aka Vusi Ma R5, also from Boekenhout in Mabopane, was fatally shot outside a tavern in Soshanguve.
Locals in Mabopane took to social media to offer their condolences to Ditshego’s family.
A picture of a man believed to be Ditshego lying dead on the ground in a pool of blood was captured in a video circulating on social media.
The video was shared despite a recent appeal by police to the public to stop taking images and videos of crime scenes with dead bodies and circulating them. Those who knew Ditshego reacted with anger and shock. Others shared good memories that they had with Ditshego, bemoaning Mabopane was no longer safe.
“A guy in Mabopane, my home town, got murdered on the busiest road between one of the busiest establishments in the township,” one said. Another posted: “Funny, I just read a story about a guy who was shot several times outside a tavern in Mabopane yesterday (Friday). What’s happening in this country is absolute nonsense.”
Pretoria News