Truck crashes into school after driver shot

A NEW Brighton teacher and a school governing board member were the heroes yesterday when they helped two deliverymen to safety and stopped looters after a truck driver was killed in a botched robbery outside a spaza shop.

The Sasko bread delivery truck careered down a road, with the dead driver still at the wheel, his foot on the accelerator, and ploughed into the perimeter fence of the Ben Sinuka Primary School.

The driver had been shot in the head as he waited in the truck while bread was being unloaded.

The attempted robbery and hijacking happened in Sheya Kulati Road shortly before 10am.

Police said Zolile Koba, 41, was shot dead in the driver’s seat of the truck as it idled outside the shop.

“At the time, one of the deliverymen was in the back of the truck getting ready to exit,” police spokesman Constable Mncedi Mbombo said.

“He heard a loud bang and shouting, and then the truck took off with him still in the back [and a third person in the front].”

A fourth worker, who was busy with the delivery, fled when he heard the gunshot and caught a taxi back to the Sasko office.

“As the truck sped down the road, it overshot the turnoff and hit the pavement, ramming into the perimeter fence of the school and rolled,” Mbombo said

The truck came to a stop on the playground, next to a classroom.

The children were all in class at the time.

It is believed Koba’s foot had pressed down on the accelerator when he was shot.

“[One of the deliverymen] inside the truck tried to steer, but obviously could not brake, and it crashed,” Mbombo said.

School governing body member Lindiwe Meyi, who was in the school grounds at the time, said: “I was just standing there and this truck came speeding up.

“It was zigzagging across the road into all the lanes.

“The next thing, it went straight through the fence and rolled.”

Meyi ran to the rescue, and was joined by teacher Mluleki Kete.

Kete said they had heard a loud bang when the truck crashed through the fence.

“Everyone in the classroom just froze,” he said. “I told the children to stay inside and ran out to see what was happening.”

A panic-stricken Kete and Meyi yanked the truck’s back door open and rescued the deliveryman inside.

“We then ran to the front of the truck and smashed the windscreen [which was already shattered] to get the passenger out,” Kete said.

“People were trying to run onto the school grounds to steal the bread from the truck.

“We had to stop them – we told them this was a school and we would not tolerate it.

“We also managed to take a lot of money [that Koba still had clutched in his hands] and gave it to the police.”

Kete said that he and some bystanders had removed Koba’s body from the vehicle.

Nelson Mandela Bay Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operations manager Ashwell Botha said Koba was already dead when they arrived. Koba’s relatives arrived at the scene in a taxi shortly afterwards.

His wife and his sister broke down in tears, screaming uncontrollably when they saw his body.

A Sasko manager, who was at the scene and declined to be named, said staff usually placed the money they received into a drop-safe built into the truck.

“It looks like the robbers tried to get to them before they dropped the money into the safe,” the man said.

Pioneer Foods bakery managing executive Riaan Heyl said this was the second incident in recent months.

“A robbery happened on the same route earlier this year, prompting us to place an armed guard in the front of the vehicle with the driver,” Heyl said.

“This is not a common occurrence, but it is a concern for which the company contracted armed security.

“Everyone at the bakery is in shock.”

Heyl said the assistant in the van who survived the attack had been taken to the trauma centre for counselling. “We have also made contact with the family [of Koba] and are in consultation with them.”

ý In an unrelated robbery at about 2am yesterday, a Times Media Group delivery truck was hijacked at a petrol station on the N2 near Komga on the way to the Transkei.

The two hijackers were armed with automatic rifles.

The truck – which was delivering The Herald’s sister newspaper, the Daily Dispatch – was found abandoned a short while later.

The drop-safe inside the truck had been opened.