Shocking news are coming from South Africa! Former Zimbabwe football player and international Charles Yohane was shot dead in South Africa in an apparent car-jacking incident.The 48-year-old former defender was working in Johannesburg as a football coach and a taxi driver following his retirement.His body was found in Soweto on Monday, though it is believed he died on Saturday night.”He was hijacked, they took his car and shot him in the head,” his brother Lewis told BBC Sport.This is devastating, someone Father, brother, friend just gone like that, RIP Charles Yohane hope the perpetrators will get caught and face the music, Sad day for football fraternity, pic.twitter.com/kt6EMRplox— tapuwa campos kapini🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼 (@tkapini7) February 16, 2022 Yohane, once playing as a defender, was in the Warriors’ squad for their debut appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2004.Another South Africa-based Zimbabwean, Edelbert Dinha, was in the Zimbabwe squad at the 2006 AFCON and was close to Yohane.”We tried calling him from Saturday up to Monday, and we couldn’t reach him,” Dinha told BBC Sport. “Then I went to the police station.”Charles was a quiet person, always smiling, he never argued with anyone. He was coaching Leruma United FC in the ABC Motsepe League.”##EDITORS_CHOICE##Born as the fourth of seven kids in the high-density suburb of Mbare, Harare, he came through the junior ranks of popular local club Dynamos before switching to Fire Batteries, where he played with Gilbert and Kelvin Mushangazhike along with Innocent Chikoya and Mike Maringa, who was once with Kaizer Chiefs.In January 1995, he arrived in South Africa, joining African Wanderers along with Chikoya.Yohane played for Zimbabwe 23 times, quickly establishing himself as his country’s first-choice left-back in 1996 when he was playing for Harare side CAPS United.INTER – LIVERPOOLHe moved from Zimbabwe to South Africa in 1996 and played for top-flight side Wits, becoming captain and making a club record 268 appearances from 1997 to 2006.He later became coach of the Wits’ developmental side, but was released from his job when the club sold its franchise to Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila in 2020.😳💔Bidvest Wits and Zimbabwean legend Charles Yohane has reportedly passed on after being fatally hijacked in South Africa at the age of 48. He was last coaching at the Wits academy before the club was sold. 😥 pic.twitter.com/oMDPZwypC5— Soccerzela (@soccerzela) February 15, 2022 His good friend Chikoya played with him at Fire Batteries FC and they moved together to African Wanderers in South Africa, with Yohane returning briefly to Zimbabwe in 1996 for his stint with Caps United.”He wasn’t a friend, he was a brother, and we have lost him in bad circumstances,” Chikoya told BBC Sport.”He was clever, an intelligent footballer, he had ways of getting things done. He was a leader, disciplined and dedicated.”I will be collecting his body from the funeral parlour on Thursday and will be taking him home.”
