A man was shot dead inside a tow van linked to Farhaan’s Tow Services at the corner of Chatham and Lower Main Road in Observatory, Cape Town, at approximately 19:00 on Thursday 26 March 2026. The victim, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, was found slumped in the driver’s seat. No arrests had been made at the time of publishing. SAPS had not issued an official statement. This report is based on the account of an eyewitness who was present at the scene.
“It sounded like your regular car crash”
The first sign that something was wrong came not as a bang, but as a silence.
An eyewitness present in a barbershop near the corner of Chatham and Lower Main Road at the time described hearing what initially appeared to be a collision shortly before 19:00.
“It sounded like your regular car crash,” the witness said.
“I mean, it’s Observatory, the roads are narrow and this was right after peak traffic. It is very common for collisions to occur around this time of the day, this time of the month, too.”
What struck those inside the barbershop almost immediately was what did not follow. “In reflection, there was a heavy silence from the source of that crash,” the witness said.
“Then, suddenly, five shots went off in quick succession.”
Everyone in the shop, the eyewitness included, hit the floor.
A man running south, and a body in a van
In the moments after the shots, the eyewitness observed an unidentified male fleeing on foot heading south along Lower Main Road.
“A few patrons agreed that the person could have been involved in the shooting, in some capacity,” the witness said.
That connection has not been verified.
Curiosity, the eyewitness noted, got the better of them. “I ventured out into the wilderness,” the witness said.
“I walked towards the crime scene and, peering in from the passenger side of the vehicle, there he was: an unidentified male victim slumped to the side of the driver’s seat, his head partially hanging out of the window of a tow van.”
A search of the business name on the vehicle traced it to Farhaan’s Tow Services. The vehicle, a silver bakkie bearing the contact number 078 654 4510 on its rear, was still at the scene when the photograph accompanying this article was taken.
A contaminated scene and a constable who was not disturbed
Bystanders clustered within arm’s reach of the tow vehicle at the Chatham and Lower Main Road intersection, with no visible police tape or physical barrier in place.
In any murder investigation, the integrity of those first minutes is critical. Shell casings, footprints, trace fibres and fingerprints are most recoverable when a perimeter is established and held.
The eyewitness, who personally reported the incident to police, described an encounter with a constable on Eden Road that gave little reassurance on that front.
“One constable, on my way to pick up takeaways for my kids, nonchalantly dismissed this as ‘yet another gang-related murder,'” the witness said.
“I was taken aback by this relaxed attitude. I mean, there was an active crime scene nearby and, while he understood that police were called, why was he not disturbed by the idea of preserving a crime scene?”
That characterisation, it must be noted, represents one officer’s off-the-cuff comment at the scene, not an official finding or a confirmed motive.
Why this shooting is different for Observatory
Observatory is not a suburb that is a stranger to crime. Burglaries, muggings and petty theft are realities its residents and neighbourhood watch structures were built to manage.
But a targeted killing, inside a vehicle, in the early evening rush, at one of its most recognisable intersections, is of a different order.
The eyewitness drew a geographic distinction that is worth preserving. The most comparable recent incident in the area was the murder of Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie, though as the witness noted, “he, technically, was gunned down in a similar fashion, but in the Salt River district.”
Staggie was shot and killed on 13 December 2019 while seated in a vehicle on London Road in Salt River, when two assailants approached and opened fire before fleeing on foot. The method of Thursday’s killing, a man shot while seated in a vehicle at the wheel, with a suspect or suspects fleeing immediately on foot, is strikingly similar, even if any connection between the two incidents would be entirely speculative.
“Murders are rare in Observatory,” the eyewitness said.
What is still unknown
As of the time of publishing, the victim’s identity has not been confirmed. The motive remains officially unknown. No suspect has been named or arrested. Swisher Post has submitted a request for comment to SAPS Western Cape and will update this article as official information becomes available.
Anyone with information about the Observatory shooting is urged to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or report via the MySAPS mobile application.
