11 July 2010, 10:07
Three Somali men hijacked on their way to buy stock for their shop in Khayelitsha early on Saturday were taken to a remote area in Philippi and shot at point-blank range.

Mohamed Omar Shadoor, 26, died instantly from a shot to the head, while Mohamed Hassanali is in a critical condition at Groote Schuur after being shot in the mouth.

The third man, Abdul Khabir Sufi, is stable after being hit in the arm and leg. He was discharged from GF Jooste hospital in Manenberg late yesterday. Shadoor was married with a child and had been in Cape Town for three years.

Police deny it was a xenophobic attack. Spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said they were investigating a case of murder, attempted murder and hijacking.

But Mahad Omar Abdi, spokesman for the Somali Crisis Group, said while he agreed it was a crime rather than a xenophobic attack, there was a perception that "if you kill a Somali you can get away with it".

"We have yet to see anyone being successfully prosecuted."

Abdi, who spoke to Sufi in hospital yesterday, said the men, all in their 20s and related to each other, had been accosted by four armed men at a traffic light

"They were forced into the back of the bakkie. Two of the robbers guarded them at the back, while the other two got into the front."

The robbers drove the bakkie into a "rough" vlei area called Sweet Home farm, off Vanguard Drive.

Sufi told Abdi that when the bakkie stopped, the two men guarding them in the back left with their cellphones and about R4 500 in cash.

"He said the driver was the shooter. He didn't say a word, but just came round to where they were sitting and shot all three of them.

Abdi said Sufi survived because Shadoor fell across him.

Other incidents in Khayelitsha:
• On Friday, thugs looted a Somali-owned shop while Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa was addressing the community just a few hundred metres away.
• On Tuesday a Zimbabwean, Reason Wandi, was thrown off a moving train by an angry group, who called him a "makwerekwere", a derogatory term for foreigners.
• Foreigners in several communities have spoken out about being threatened with death after the end of the World Cup, which finishes tonight.

• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Argus on July 11, 2010