Durban - The body of slain Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa arrived in Durban on Friday afternoon as thousands of mourners gathered for his memorial service.
Police had closed off Anton Lembede Street in Durban to traffic outside the City Hall, with Ethekwini metro police and the SA Police Service creating a path allowing the vehicle with his body to pass.
People wore the T-shirts of the Soweto-based Orlando Pirates football club, the team he also captained, with some mourners wearing rival Kaizer Chiefs regalia for a memorial in his honour.
The light drizzle did not stop people from paying their respects.
At various buildings along Anton Lembede Street office workers and security guards stood outside their respective buildings, while others leaned out of the skyscraper buildings to see the happenings in the street down below.
Meyiwa hails from Umlazi on the outskirts of the coastal city.
A host of TV crews were also present at the City Hall on Friday.
Thompson Phoswa, a former coach of Umlazi's London Cosmos, who sent Meyiwa to Orlando Pirates for trials when he was younger, was among the mourners.
“It is very painful to me, it's very bad. I think the crime is too high. This hits all of us, especially me, as I was a father figure to him at that time.”
He said he had received a call at 10pm on Sunday from Meyiwa's elder brother Sifiso.
“At first I thought it was a joke but he was crying. I never slept the whole of that night. People were asking me all the time if it was true.”
Meyiwa was shot dead on Sunday night by two men who entered the house of his girlfriend, singer and actress Kelly Khumalo, in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni.
At Durban's Moses Mabhida stadium police could be seen practising their drill routine and the bugler could be heard playing the “The Last Post”.
Meyiwa's funeral is set to be held in the stadium on Saturday.
Sapa