A disciplinary hearing at a Boxer store ended with three managers shot dead

Three women walked into an office at the Boxer store in Eshowe on Saturday morning to run a disciplinary hearing. None of them walked out.

Police say a former worker at the store pulled out a gun during the meeting and shot all three. They were declared dead at the scene, according to KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda.

Four days later, the man police want to question is still out there. CCTV footage from inside the office has spread fast online. One clip passed 1.3 million views on Wednesday. South Africans watching it keep asking the same thing: Where is he?

What happened at the Boxer store in Eshowe?

The shooting happened on Saturday 10 October inside the offices of the Boxer supermarket in Eshowe, a town in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Police say the suspect is a former employee of the store. He had come in for an internal disciplinary hearing. That is a formal meeting where a company tells a worker what he is accused of and decides what happens to his job.

"The suspect allegedly produced a firearm and shot three people who were declared dead at the scene," Netshiunda said, as quoted by TimesLIVE.

The man allegedly ran off before police arrived. Netshiunda said a manhunt is under way.

Who were the three women shot at Boxer?

All three were women who worked for Boxer, police said. IOL reported that they were the store's bakery manager, store manager and administration manager.

Police have not released their names. One family has spoken, though.

Khehla Chili told the isiZulu newspaper Isolezwe, as reported by IOL, that his sister Thandiwe Chili, 54, was one of the women killed. She came from eSikhaleni near Empangeni. He said she had worked for Boxer for more than 20 years, six of them at the Eshowe store.

He said she supported her own children, some of them at university. She also helped other relatives and her grandchildren.

The family wants justice, he said. He told the paper the man could have found work somewhere else. Instead, Chili said, he chose a path that will end in prison.

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The names of the other two women have not been confirmed by police or by their families, so we are not sharing them.

Did he really leave the hearing and come back with a gun?

That is what the Chili family says.

According to Khehla Chili, the three managers told the man he was being charged. He then stood up, locked them inside the office and left for a few minutes. When he came back, his brother said, he had a gun.

"He came back with a gun and shot all three of them," Chili told Isolezwe, as reported by IOL.

The family says it happened at about 9am. Relatives only reached the store at around 1pm, after another Boxer worker passed on the news.

A widely shared post about the footage claimed he went to fetch his own licensed firearm and returned to sign his dismissal papers. Police have not said where the gun came from, whether it was licensed, or whether he had already been fired. Those claims are unconfirmed.

Police have also not given a motive.

Photo: Bob Adams from Amanzimtoti, South Africa / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

The Eshowe Boxer shooting, day by day

This is every confirmed step so far, with where it comes from. We will add to it as police release more.

Where is the Eshowe Boxer suspect now?

As of Wednesday 14 October, nobody knows in public. Police have reported no arrest.

Police have not named the man, and we will not name him until they do. IOL reported that he used to work in the store's bakery.

Police have asked anyone who knows where he is to come forward. You do not have to give your name when you call Crime Stop.

No reward has been announced so far.

What has Boxer said about the shooting?

Boxer, the discount supermarket chain controlled by the Pick n Pay group, confirmed the shooting in a statement on Facebook.

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The company said it happened on Saturday. "Our heartfelt condolences remain with their families and loved ones," it said, as reported by TimesLIVE.

Boxer said it is supporting colleagues who were affected and will work fully with the police investigation.

It has not said anything about the hearing itself, about the man's job, or about safety at its stores.

How did a gun get into a disciplinary hearing?

This is the question the Chili family is asking.

Khehla Chili told Isolezwe that staff at the store are searched only when they leave, to check for stolen goods. Nobody checks them when they arrive for work. If they had been searched on the way in, he said, "they would have seen he was armed."

Searches at supermarkets have been in the news before. Not long ago, a guard took an old woman's food at a Shoprite, and strangers gave her R45,000 within a day. That search was about shoplifting. This one, the family says, never happened at all.

Boxer has not answered the family's point in public.

Photo: RN Nobby Clarke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Why are so many people sharing the CCTV footage?

The footage shows a workplace meeting turning deadly. Most people have sat through a tense meeting at work. Very few have imagined it ending like this.

In the replies, people asked who the women were, why the man was not stopped at the door and how he got away. Many simply wrote that they were heartbroken.

Readers who follow crime in South Africa will remember the armed robbers who came for sleeping residents in Pretoria. This case is different. It happened in daylight, at work, in a room that should have been safe.

What happens when police find the Boxer suspect?

Under South African law, anyone who is arrested must appear in court within 48 hours. If police find him, his first court appearance would follow within two days.

Until then, three families are waiting. The Chili family has said what it wants: Justice.

Somewhere in KwaZulu-Natal, or beyond, a man police want to question is still free. Someone knows where he is sleeping tonight. The Crime Stop line, 08600 10111, takes the call without asking for a name.