27-year-old Mazwi Kubheka of Vosloorus in the East Rand kidnapped photo supplied
The family of disappeared 27-year-old Mazwi Kubheka of Vosloorus in the East Rand, has told Tshwane Talks that a group of Pakistanis wanted him to sell his Spaza shop to them.
These Pakistanis were previous owners of the said Spaza shop.
They were forced to vacate the Spaza shop in a huff by irate members of the community of Vosloorus during the outbreak of the foodborne disease Terbufos, whereby about 23 children died countrywide after consuming snacks and other food stuffs they had purchased from foreign-owned spaza shops in the years 2023 to 2024
It is widely-believed in the community of Vosloorus that Mazwi Kubheka might have been kidnapped by the said Pakistanis as he didn’t want to sell the Spaza shop back to them.
“On Thursday 2nd of April 2026 Mazwi left home to go to the nearby Chris Hani Mall to deposit money into the bank account of his landlord, on whose property he is running the spaza shop, and that was the last time I saw him,” said Mazwi Kubheka’s sister Nomhle Kubheka in an interview with Tshwane Talks this week.
She said on the day of his disappearance she tried to phone his brother Mazwi but there was no response.
She then phoned his girlfriend who told her that she had last seen her on the night of 1 April 2026.
Nomhle then contacted the local police, hospital and mortuaries but none of these institutions had any knowledge of his brother Mazwi’s whereabouts.
Nomhle Kubheka revealed that prior to his disappearance, his brother Mazwi had informed the family that he had noticed that there was a white bakkie with Pakistani occupants which had started parking just outside his spaza shop every day for three days.
She revealed that there is a guy called Zulu, who owns a spaza that is close to that of Mazwi who in recent days tried several times to persuade Mazwi to sell his spaza shop back to the Pakistanis, and that Mazwi rebuffed this suggestion each time Zulu raised it.
As Mazwi was not prepared to sell the spaza shop to the Pakistanis, the Pakistanis suggested, through the selfsame guy called Zulu, that Mazwi must give space to them to place their Spaza shop container next to that of Mazwi in the yard that Mazwi was running his spaza shop.
Again Mazwi rebuffed this suggestion as therre is no space in the yard to accommodate another spaza shop container and also because he couldn’t give the Pakistanis permission to place their container in the yard as he (Mazwi) was a mere tenant in the yard and not the owner of the yard.
It has also emerged that the said Pakistanis had tried to persuade another spaza shop owner to make them his tenants in an arrangement whereby they would be the new owners of the spaza shop and pay him 4 months’ rent money in advance.
Nomhle Kubheka told Tshwane Talks that the disappearance of her brother Mazwi has literally put their lives to a standstill.
This as she has now abandoned her creative arts studies and her sister who lives in the Western Cape has taken unpaid leave from work to be in Vosloorus with the family during these trying times.
Nomhle expressed unhappiness with the local police’s response to his brother Mazwi’s disappearance; describing it as nonchalant.
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