Zimbabwean Businessman Shot Dead In Mayibuye Hijacking — Rabie Ridge SAPS Opens Murder Docket

Blood stained the tarmac outside Savemore at dawn on Tuesday when residents discovered the lifeless body of a 48-year-old Zimbabwean national slumped near his vehicle in Mayibuye, a township wedged against the old Cambridge corridor north of Johannesburg. The man, whose full name investigators have not yet formally released, sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. Community members dialled emergency services shortly after 05h30, and officers arrived to find the scene already drawing a small crowd of horrified neighbours.

Preliminary findings suggest the victim was travelling through Mayibuye when assailants allegedly forced his car to a halt, demanded his keys, and opened fire when he resisted. Detectives from Rabie Ridge SAPS confirmed they recovered shell casings metres from the deceased and noted the engine of the targeted vehicle was still running when law enforcement reached the area. No passengers were aboard. The murder docket, registered under Rabie Ridge CAS number 47/07/2025, now sits with the station’s serious-crimes unit pending a formal post-mortem examination.

“We are treating this as a hijacking that escalated fatally,” Rabie Ridge spokesperson Constable Lebohang Sithole told journalists at the cordoned perimeter Tuesday morning. “Our detectives are canvassing businesses in the Savemore precinct for surveillance footage and appealing to anyone with information to contact the station on 011 374 2727.” SAPS members had not confirmed any arrests by the time this report went to press.

Mayibuye sits within an area historically burdened by vehicle-related crime, with Rabie Ridge recording a 23 percent spike in robbery incidents during the first quarter of 2025 according to SAPS provincial statistics. The stretch linking Savemore to the R511 has drawn repeated complaints from ward committees citing inadequate overnight patrols. Residents submitted a formal memorandum to the local councillor six weeks ago demanding visible policing along that corridor.

A vegetable vendor who operates fifty metres from where the body lay described pulling her trolley away from the tape, her hands trembling around a plastic cup of tea she never managed to drink. “He was just lying there like someone forgot him,” she whispered, staring at the chalk outline long after officials cleared the scene.

The victim’s family in Zimbabwe remains uncontacted, and his identity awaits formal verification through Home Affairs records. Who knew this man was on that road at that precise hour — and who was already waiting.