Gugulethu SuperSpar store manager Clinton Pike was shot dead during a hijacking shortly after closing shop. Picture: Supplied.
Workers in shock after fatal hijacking
September 11, 2015
Cape Town - Employees at the SuperSpar in the Gugulethu Square shopping centre were left devastated after a store manager was shot dead during a hijacking shortly after closing shop.
Western Cape police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk confirmed that a 50-year-old man was killed during a hijacking on the corner of NY1 and NY7 in Gugulethu, on Wednesday at 7.30pm.
Princess Mgidlana, who worked with Pike, was one of the first people on the scene.
“After we finished work, Clinton locked the store, while I went to the bathroom to change out my work clothing. Later, children came knocking on the door, telling me my boss had been shot.
“When I arrived, he was struggling to breathe, I didn’t know what to do and he eventually passed away.”
She said witnesses told her he was shot as he tried to drive away from the hijackers. “He was unable to get away, and was shot. The hijackers made off with his car.”
Another colleague, Tindi Mzi, said she had known Pike since 2013 when he was employed at the store.
“He was strict but also a people’s person. With him, if it was wrong it was wrong. We had this special spiritual connection. Somehow I could share everything with him, and I was not the only one.”
Mzi said he was not his usual self the day he was shot. “He was quiet the whole day, which is unlike him, and I remember telling him to pray every day last month.”
A sobbing Phathiswa Matolengwe said she would miss Pike’s humour.
“I will miss his jokes, he had a funny nickname for all of us. And if he somehow offended you he would never leave without saying sorry.”
Mike Eayrs, the owner of the store, said Pike had been worked for the group for eight years between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. Eayrs described him as hard working, intelligent, honest and a man of strong integrity.
“He will be missed.”
He said staff were traumatised by the incident because “they all loved Pike”.
Police said the unknown suspects fled the scene in a light Blue i20 Hyundai. A murder docket has been opened.
http://mobi.iol.co.za/#!/article/workers-in-shock-after-fatal-hijacking-1.1914607
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