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Pretoria – The fatally injured Sam Ntsoko’s last words on Wednesday morning were, “Tell the police Nico did it”.
The 46-year-old attorney fell to the ground and died in the parking area of the law firm where he was a partner, Netwerk24 reports.
Shortly before the assassination the attackers went to buy vetkoek at a kiosk while waiting for Ntsoko to arrive. He was killed shortly before 07:00.
A few hours later, about 14:00, provincial police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela confirmed that two men had been arrested in connection with the murder.
Parking area
Ntsoko on Wednesday morning arrived at the law firm Hack, Stupel & Ross in Emily Hobhouse Street in Pretoria North where he had handled estates and collections for more than a decade.
The senior partner, Herman Smalberger, was already at work on the top floor.
“Sam drove into the parking area and stopped at the back of the building. The entrance gate to the parking area had already closed.
“The next moment someone stood next to the bakkie – Sam was still in the bakkie - and fired three shots through the window. It looked as if he had been shot in the head.
“Our security guard, Frans Thapelo, heard the shots and ran towards the bakkie. Sam had just opened the door and got out when he told Frans, ‘Tell the police it was Nico.’ Sam walked to the front of the bakkie and fell to the ground,” Smalberger said.
Ntsoko was already dead when Smalberger got to him.
Jumped over the gate
Jeanette Prinsloo, a car guard at a shopping centre opposite the law firm, said when she and her colleagues arrived at 05:50, they saw a white VW Golf parked on the pavement.
“Two men were sitting in the car. The driver got out a short while later and went to buy two vetkoek at the kiosk before walking back to the car”.
She remembered that a bakkie entered the law firm’s parking area a while later.
“One of the men in the Golf jumped out and jumped over the law firm’s gate. I heard three shots being fired and in a flash the guy jumped over the gate again.
“At that time the Golf was already idling and the driver was getting ready to leave”.
Family and friends of Sam Ntsoko outside the offices where he worked for more than ten years. (Hanti Otto, Netwerk24)
Staff members
Trauma councillors were called in to help Ntsoko's colleagues while members of the police and forensic experts combed the area for finger prints and blood splatter.
Smalberger gave all of the staff members permission to go home.
He declined to speculate over the motive of the murder, but said, “Ntsoko was a nice guy… a family man.
“His oldest child is just 16 and the other one is about eight or nine. The baby is just three years old”.
Ntsoko’s family members were taken to an office in the law practice.
A Golf and a firearm were found in the possession of two men arrested in Atteridgeville a while later, said Makhubela. They are aged 28 and 37.
He didn’t want to elaborate about the motive of the murder.
