Bongani was not answering his cell phone. When Dumi did, he simply said: “I’ve been shot. I’m going to the hospital”.
A year ago today, Thato Mabaso was settling down for the night and pouring himself something to drink when the phone rang. The panicked voice on the other end of the line told him that they heard gunshots come from near a car where his two best friends Bongani Khumalo and Dumi Masilela were parked. His blood ran cold.
“I remember throwing my glass across the room and rushing to the hospital,” Thato told TshisaLIVE this week.
“Dumi greeted me with the biggest smile and I thought that he would be okay. That was one of his strongest qualities, he always made you feel like you were going to be okay. He was the most optimistic person. I had hope. I called his wife earlier to tell her, her husband had been shot, but a few hours later… she would be the one calling me.”
The tears that followed, both in public and private, in the year since that day has been some of the most bitter for the young film producer.
“At times I feel like I have to be strong for Bongani because he took it worse than I did. He was in the car that day. I know that one of us has to be the shoulder for the other. On my own it affects me, I have been told that it is okay to cry so I do that a lot,” he said.