PRETORIA - The owner of the vehicle, Isaac David (22) Satlata, says he is not doing ok.
He is still shaken as this has never happened to him or any of his drivers. When hiring Satlat to be an e-hailing driver two months ago, this was the last thing he expected to happen.
The owner, who chooses to remain anonymous while investigations continue, has been in the e-hailing business for seven years. He had been a driver for two years before deciding to expand his business.
READ: UPDATE: Three linked to murder of e-hailing driver abandon bail
In its expansion, he managed to hire up to five drivers, with Satlat as his fifth driver on the roster.
'He was a friend of mine,' I had known for a year, said the owner.
'I buy cars regularly and he had been a mechanic where I had them checked,' he adds. The two sparked a friendship and Satlat would drive for him occasionally. He hired him full-time in December.
Satlat was due to graduate as a mobile engineer in March.
All of the owner's vehicles are fitted with Dash-cams, trackers and pepper spray for the drivers' safety.
READ: Tshwane mayor urges organised e-hailing networks after driver’s murder
'That's all I can do within legal means,' he says. And he thought it was enough to protect his drivers.
Satlat was strangled after picking up two people along Christoffel Street, not far from the Quagga Shopping Centre in Pretoria West, on Wednesday. He was found dead with the vehicle in Attridgeville.
Satlat's family is appealing to the public for help with repatriating him to Nigeria, where he will be buried.
Solomon Izang Ashoms, family representative says the family both in South Africa and Nigeria are not doing well.
'It's a huge relief that people have been arrested, because there are so many questions' he says.
READ: E-hailing association credits social media for break in murder case
Ashoms says this is a criminal attack and not a xenophobic and calls on the public to not make it a xenophobic issue.
Through a Back-A-Buddy campaign, the family are hoping to raise R70,000 to repatriate Satlat's body back home as that is where is family is.
At the time of the publishing of this article, R24,000 had been donated so far.
READ: E-hailing driver's family pleads for help to repatriate his body
Dikeledi Mphela (25), Gotseone Machidi (26) and McClaren Mushwana (30) appeared before the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday in connection with Satlat's murder.
They have abandoned their bid for bail. According to the police, they are still on the look out for a fourth suspect. The suspects face hijacking and murder charges.