South African President Jacob Zuma yesterday led a shocked nation in voicing outrage at the murder of national soccer captain Senzo Robert Meyiwa after the talismanic goalkeeper was shot dead during an apparent home robbery.
Police said the 27-year-old was killed late on Sunday after burglars broke in to the house of his pop-star girlfriend Kelly Khumalo, making off with a cellphone.
More than 17,000 people were killed in South Africa last year, but the slaying of a sporting hero has stunned the crime-weary nation.
“Words cannot express the nation’s shock at this loss,” Zuma said, amid a national outpouring of grief and anger.
Fighting back tears, South Africa coach Shakes Mashaba described Meyiwa as a “very kind person” who was the first name on his teamsheet, while teammates at his local club the Orlando Pirates were sobbing and crying uncontrollably at a team meeting yesterday, club officials said.
Police offered an increased reward of 250,000 rand (US$23,000) for any information leading to his killer’s arrest.
Tributes to Meyiwa flooded in from across the world, including from FIFA World Cup winning goalkeeper and Spain captain Iker Casillas, who posted on Instagram a photograph of Meyiwa after the pair had swapped jerseys, saying: “Very sad for the dramatic loss of friend RIP Senzo.”
This is just the latest tragedy to befall South Africa’s sporting fraternity, which is still reeling from the death of former 800m world champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi in a car crash on Friday last week and the jailing of fallen Oympic hero Oscar Pistorius for the killing of his girlfriend last year.
South African National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega said that with the eyes of the world again on the nation’s high crime rate, a team of national and provincial officers was working the case.
However, Phiyega rejected accusations that Meyiwa’s killing was being treated differently because of the victim’s high profile.
“We believe that someone, somewhere, somehow knows something about this crime,” she said, appealing to the public to come forward.
Meyiwa was gunned down at a house in Vosloorus, a township about 30km south of Johannesburg, at about 8pm on Sunday.
“It is alleged that two suspects entered the house and confronted the occupants, while a third suspect was outside,” Phiyega said.
After an altercation “a shot was fired, the goalkeeper was hit in the upper body and was taken to hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival,” she added.
One cellphone was taken and the three suspects fled on foot. Police have launched a manhunt for the suspects, described as being in their late 20s and early 30s.
After many years in the South African soccer shadows, Meyiwa had a meteoric climb to fame with the Orlando Pirates.
Meyiwa displaced goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs as first-choice at Pirates, the only South African side to be crowned African champions, while a recent injury to captain and goalie Itumeleng Khune gave Meyiwa a chance on the national team.
New South Africa coach Mashaba not only promoted Meyiwa to replace Khune, but made him captain of a team that have been in the doldrums for some years.
Meyiwa responded by leading the team to victories over Sudan and Congo Brazzaville, and draws with Congo Brazzaville and Nigeria. He did not concede in the four matches and if South Africa defeat Sudan next month they will qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier