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A team of detectives is investigating whether former Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs striker Marc Batchelor was killed in a revenge hit for an alleged role in the theft of ton of cocaine smuggled late in 2018, according to the Sunday Times.
This is the same team from the organised-crime unit which has been looking into the murder of Serbian national Ivan Djordjevic, who was shot dead in a similar manner at his Bryanston home in April, the weekly newspaper reported.
Djordjevic, 59, was shot several times after driving into the Highbury residential complex in Bryanston. The shooting was captured on CCTV, News24 reported.
The Sunday Times revealed that Djordjevic went into business with Batchelor last year, who ran a debt-collection company. It said the two were allegedly involved in the theft of cocaine.
"The drugs came to SA via Port Elizabeth and Cape Town harbours in December last year from Brazil and the Netherlands," according to the paper.
Rapport on Sunday reported that Batchelor had "made the wrong people angry".
Batchelor died after he was shot several times in his car outside his home in Olivedale, northern Johannesburg. He was travelling with his gardener and dog when he was shot several times by two men on motorbikes, News24 previously reported.
READ: Marc Batchelor's first reaction was to shield gardener from bullets, says brother
His gardener survived and his dog, who was wounded, is receiving medical care. On the day of the shooting, alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack, who was an associate of the former soccer star, told News24 Batchelor was a family man and not one for "war".
Batchelor grew up in Johannesburg's north-eastern suburbs and attended school in Sandringham. He will be buried in Midrand on Friday.
The service is expected to start at 12:00 at The Crossing Church, his brother, Warren Batchelor, said.
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