E-hailing driver strangled in Pretoria was on his last trip of the day

Isaac Satlat, the Pretoria e-hailing driver who was killed by three of his passengers last week, had accepted his killers’ trip request because it was a short distance from where he lived. His family said the trip that eventually cost him his life was meant to be his last job for the day on Wednesday. Family spokesperson Solomon Izang Ashoms said Satlat, 22, accepted the trip because it was a short distance and he had planned to head home immediately afterwards.

The pickup for his alleged killers was in Atteridgeville, and Satlat lived in the CBD. “He normally commutes between Pretoria and Centurion,” Ashoms said. “On the day he called and told us that he was doing his last trip and would be home in no time.

After some time, we got worried and started to call him but got no answer.” Isaac’s warmth, generosity, and the love he shared touched the lives of all who knew him. Satlat’s body and his vehicle were found in Mshongoville in Pretoria West, where his three passengers, two men and a woman, had left him. The car he had been driving belonged to Wiseman Makube, his superior at the company where he was doing an internship, who had lent it to him so he could make money as an e-hailing driver.

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The dashcam video of Satlat’s death emerged late last week. It shows a woman in the passenger seat searching him while a second suspect, a man seated at the back, grabs Satlat by the neck and strangles him while his victim tries to free himself from his grip. At some point, the woman holds his legs down.

This goes on until Satlat’s body goes limp and the accomplice then drags him to the back seat. A third suspect is seen minutes later, jumping into the driver’s seat and driving the car away. Satlat had been doing an automotive mechanical engineering internship in Centurion and was expected to finish early in March.

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