South African police have clarified that a Zimbabwean man, mistakenly identified online as the shooter in the deaths of two employees of the bread company Sasko, is not a suspect in the case.
Social media was flooded with an image of the man, wrongly named as Martin Mugayi, purported to be one of the shooters. However, the man’s true identity has not been independently verified.
Western Cape police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Pojie addressed journalists on Thursday, confirming that no arrests have been made in connection with the May 16 killings, and investigations are ongoing.
“A 28-year-old Zimbabwean national was arrested in Beaufort-West on May 22, 2024, for being undocumented. However, he is not a suspect in the Delft double murder from last week,” Pojie stated.
The arrested man is expected to appear soon in the Beaufort-West Magistrates’ Court.
The chilling incident was captured on a dashcam video, showing three Sasko employees in a bread delivery truck in Delft, near Cape Town, being attacked by three men. The footage shows a gunman shooting at the trio, followed by a robbery. Two employees died on the spot, while the third, seated in the middle, survived with gunshot wounds.
False information circulated on social media suggested that police had received a tip-off about the location of one of the suspects, erroneously identified as the Zimbabwean man. This claim originated from a screenshot of a WhatsApp group message, which included a case number and details about the alleged suspect.
“The message stated that the suspect was traveling to Zimbabwe, with the name of the bus and its current location provided by the informer, along with a photo of the suspect,” the WhatsApp message, later posted on X and Facebook, revealed.
This misinformation led to xenophobic comments and was widely shared by far-right anti-immigrant activists.
The police have urged the public to refrain from spreading unverified information and to allow the investigation to proceed without interference.
