He was a young man who brought people together. During the time that Phakama “PK” Ngwenya lived in Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort, in a house that lacked electricity and running water, he often invited over school friends from the suburbs.
They were his friends, he told his family, the guys he skated and biked with. Seeing the way his family lived wouldn’t change that.
On Saturday, Ngwenya brought a diverse crowd together one final time – but it was in grief, as friends and family packed a street in Dube for Ngwenya’s memorial service.
The 23-year-old was shot and killed in the early hours of May 28.
Relatives say he was riding in a car in Honeydew with two friends when armed attackers pulled the three out and marched them to a stretch of nearby veld.
The attackers raped one of the passengers, and when Ngwenya apparently tried to escape and get help, they shot him.
That is about all his family know at this point. Police have not yet identified any suspects in the case.
For Ngwenya’s oldest sister, Khaya, closure won’t come until she knows who killed her brother.
“Even if we can’t bring PK back,” she said last week, using her brother’s nickname, “we want to know the truth”.
Hundreds of people showed up on Saturday for the young man’s funeral, spilling out from under the white tent that was set up outside his family home.
Between hymns and sermons in three languages, several friends and family members asked those gathered to focus on celebrating Ngwenya’s life.
“That’s what PK would have wanted,” said a friend, Sazi Luke, 23. “He would probably be laughing right now.”
But in between the lighter moments, Ngwenya’s friends wiped away tears as they recalled a life lost far too soon.
Zyan Schwieger, whose relatives say she was almost inseparable from Ngwenya, wrapped PK’s younger brother in a bear hug before speaking.
Schwieger said life had been looking up for PK, who had recently been promoted at work and was planning to marry the mother of his five-month-old daughter.
Reading what she called a “Message to my brother”, Schwieger said staying strong was tough after losing someone so close.
“You were taken from us all,” Schwieger said. “From each and every person here.”
During a meeting last week with three officials from the Honeydew police station, Khaya asked the cops to investigate every lead.
But close to a week after her brother’s murder, Khaya was disappointed that the police had turned up dismally few leads from the car in which Ngwenya had been riding.
Police officials said they were working hard on the investigation, and asked the family to share whatever information they could.
At one point, a police colonel said he understood why the family were asking so many questions; when a close family member had died, he had done the same thing, he said.
Compared with other areas in greater Joburg, Honeydew sees relatively few killings.
Between April 2009 and March last year, the most recent period on record, police recorded 32 murders in the area. There were 3 444 murders across Gauteng during the same period.
While murders are on the decline in Honeydew and across the province, that means little for Ngwenya’s older sister.
Venting her frustration at the lack of progress the police have made, Khaya said last week: “He was not a dog or cat. He was a human being.”