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Johannesburg - Helping the family of a teenager shot dead, allegedly by a Somali shopowner, is not compensation from government, Gauteng community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane said in Soweto on Tuesday.
"This is not compensation or admission of wrongdoing or guilt as some might think... this is stakeholders coming together to help a community member," she told journalists outside the Snake Park home of Simphiwe Mahori, 14.
Nkosi-Malobane was visiting Mahori's family. The boy's mother was not home as she had gone to a funeral parlour in Roodepoort.
She said the City of Johannesburg would help provide some of the food and cover some of the transport costs for the burial, to be held on Saturday.
"In our first interaction with the family, they told us about challenges they were coming across regarding preparations for the burial. We managed to secure help through the city," she said.
The Somali Community Board, a shopowners' organisation, was also helping the family, she said.
Mahori, 14, was allegedly shot by Somali shopowner Alodixashi Sheik Yusuf in Snake Park, Soweto, last Monday. He allegedly fired at a group of people trying to rob his shop.
Yusuf appeared in the Protea Magistrate's Court on Monday on charges of murder, attempted murder, and illegal possession of a firearm.
He is expected to be back in court next week to apply for bail.
