ULUNDI - Mthokozisi Mvelase had only been in Johannesburg for a few weeks, hoping to build a better life by working as an e-hailing driver.
However, this very job that gave him hope and put food on the table also took his life.
The 27-year-old was brutally killed last week outside Maponya Mall in Soweto, in what police believe is connected to ongoing tensions between e-hailing drivers and taxi operators.
READ | Family of slain e-hailing driver pleads for help to give him dignified burial
His family is left heartbroken and struggling to cover funeral costs, and is in desperate need for his remains to be brought back home in KwaZulu-Natal.
"We just want to be able to have his body so that he can have a dignified funeral," Mvelase's uncle, Doctor Khuzwayo pleaded as he spoke to eNCA.
Mvelase is said to have been stopped at the entrance when four men approached, opened fire at him, before his vehicle was torched.
READ: Maponya Mall closed for business after e-hailing driver killed
Another driver and a passerby sustained gunshot wounds during the incident.
This tragic incident continues to haunt the family. Khuzwayo says as he replays how Mvelase, a man he viewed to be respectful and full of life was brutally killed.
"He was too young to die like that. To be shot and then burnt almost feels like you were murdered twice," Khuzwayo says.
KwaZulu-Natal government officials will visit the family of the slain e-hailing driver.