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Stray bullet kills soccer player at tavern
September 26 2006 at 03:29PM
While street soccer players from around the world celebrate the Homeless World Cup, township players participating in the Martell-sponsored Taverners Football Association league are mourning the death of one of their players.
Vuyisa Mapeyi, 24, died after being shot in the chest on Saturday night while attending a Crossroads "bash" hosted by Mina's Tavern to celebrate the opening of the Taverners Football Association (TFA) season.
Sources who attended the party said they believed Mapeyi was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between gangsters.
As a result, traumatised team members of Mina's tavern football club cancelled their match scheduled to be played in Stellenbosch on Monday.
'The team is very emotional'
Revellers at the party, which started at 9pm, said it had been the best "bash" they had attended in "a long time".
A DJ had been especially hired to entertain at the tavern, which had a reputation as the biggest and ""most comfortable" shebeen in Crossroads with a strict policy of allowing no under-18s in the establishment.
Sources said "strangers", suspected of being gangsters recently released from prison, started shooting at each other outside shortly after 10pm.
A resident, Siyabonga Booysen, said everyone was drinking and focusing on the entertainment inside the shebeen when they were disturbed by gunshots.
Booysen said a stray bullet came through the open door and struck Mapeyi, who died at the scene.
Mina's Tavern football club manager Nondoda Poni said the team had organised a braai to celebrate the opening of the new TFA season.
Poni said the death of one of their players, an innocent bystander, was a "tragedy".
"The team is very emotional.
"Even now we are sitting here discussing what we're going to do. We can't accept this. It's a big loss."
He said the team had lost not only a player but a friend.
Neighbours claimed Saturday's shooting was not the first one at Mina's Tavern.
Police Superintendent Billy Jones confirmed that SAPS members had received a "murder complaint" at Unathi Old Crossroads on Saturday night.
"On arrival at the scene, they found the deceased, V Mapeyi, 24, with a bullet wound in his chest," Jones said.
He said the motive for the murder was unknown and no arrests had been made. - West Cape News
This article was originally published on page 8 of Cape Argus on September 26, 2006
September 26 2006 at 03:29PM
While street soccer players from around the world celebrate the Homeless World Cup, township players participating in the Martell-sponsored Taverners Football Association league are mourning the death of one of their players.
Vuyisa Mapeyi, 24, died after being shot in the chest on Saturday night while attending a Crossroads "bash" hosted by Mina's Tavern to celebrate the opening of the Taverners Football Association (TFA) season.
Sources who attended the party said they believed Mapeyi was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between gangsters.
As a result, traumatised team members of Mina's tavern football club cancelled their match scheduled to be played in Stellenbosch on Monday.
'The team is very emotional'
Revellers at the party, which started at 9pm, said it had been the best "bash" they had attended in "a long time".
A DJ had been especially hired to entertain at the tavern, which had a reputation as the biggest and ""most comfortable" shebeen in Crossroads with a strict policy of allowing no under-18s in the establishment.
Sources said "strangers", suspected of being gangsters recently released from prison, started shooting at each other outside shortly after 10pm.
A resident, Siyabonga Booysen, said everyone was drinking and focusing on the entertainment inside the shebeen when they were disturbed by gunshots.
Booysen said a stray bullet came through the open door and struck Mapeyi, who died at the scene.
Mina's Tavern football club manager Nondoda Poni said the team had organised a braai to celebrate the opening of the new TFA season.
Poni said the death of one of their players, an innocent bystander, was a "tragedy".
"The team is very emotional.
"Even now we are sitting here discussing what we're going to do. We can't accept this. It's a big loss."
He said the team had lost not only a player but a friend.
Neighbours claimed Saturday's shooting was not the first one at Mina's Tavern.
Police Superintendent Billy Jones confirmed that SAPS members had received a "murder complaint" at Unathi Old Crossroads on Saturday night.
"On arrival at the scene, they found the deceased, V Mapeyi, 24, with a bullet wound in his chest," Jones said.
He said the motive for the murder was unknown and no arrests had been made. - West Cape News
This article was originally published on page 8 of Cape Argus on September 26, 2006