Police Yet To Uncover Why South African Famous Teen Model Was Killed

A 17-year old South African teen model has been killed. Aphiwe Mgoqi who modelled for Woolworths, Mr Price, Ackermans, Jet and done so many billboards and magazine adverts was stabbed and stoned to death on Tuesday in his neighbourhood.

His family does not know why anyone would harm their boy. He had no enemies, was not a gang member and was, by all accounts, a model pupil, they said. Nomfundo Mgoqi, his mother, said she could not believe what had happened. “It feels like he’s gone to school and will walk in... any time,” she said.

While police are trying to piece together the puzzle of why Aphiwe was targeted, a witness told a South African paper that, Aphiwe and a friend had accompanied two girls to New Crossroads, a place in his neighbourhood, but it appeared the girls led Aphiwe into a trap. When they got to Manyano Street, the girls made a phone call and were overheard saying: “We have them.”

Soon a crowd appeared. The friend fled, but Aphiwe was caught. The crowd, armed with pangas, knives and stones, surrounded Aphiwe and began to assault him.

“He tried climbing over a wall of a house. He was already over the wall but they grabbed his arm, stabbed him with a panga and then dragged him back over the wall,” the witness said.

The witness saw the gang hack Aphiwe with pangas and bash his head with chunks of concrete, which was just two blocks away from Nomaza Mgoqi, Aphiwe’s grandmother’s house. She was later called that some teens have stabbed her grandson severally, but when she got there, Aphiwe’s body had been covered with a blanket. She said; “When I lifted him, blood was streaming out of his body. There were two huge concrete stones right next to where his head was and was gasping for air. Aphiwe was taken to an Hospital in Gugulethu where he later died.

Aphiwe’s modelling agency, 3D Management, says it still cannot believe he has been murdered.

“I can’t concentrate on my work,” said his model booker, Buyelwa Cynthia Jali, who said that when 3D started the kids market seven years ago, Aphiwe, then only 10, was the first child it signed. “He was such a sweet, charming boy... a hard worker most of our clients loved.”

Aphiwe had only had two castings before he was booked for his first job, at Ackermans, and had since done shoots for Woolworths’ Studio W range, Edgars, Jet and Mr Price.

“Mr Price ads are done in Durban, so every now and then he would fly there with his mother.”

“He did not deserve to die like that,” Jali said, adding clients who had booked Aphiwe before for shoots had been told of his death.

Meanwhile, the mood at Aphiwe’s school, Walmer Secondary, was sombre. Pupils were in tears. They couldn’t stop crying because he was a great peer to have, his school Principal said.