Chatsworth businessman, Brandon Kalicharan Puff, and wife, Jeconiah Pillay, shot dead in Durban 'drive-by shooting'

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Chatsworth businessman, Brandon Kalicharan Puff, and wife, Jeconiah Pillay, shot dead in Durban 'drive-by shooting'. 

Brandon Kalicharan, his wife Jeconiah Pillay and their child came under fire in Peters Road, Springfield on Tuesday.

Paramedics who attended the scene said their Volkswagen Amarok was “sprayed with high calibre bullets”.

Footage captured at the scene shows the bullet-riddled vehicle.

The couple were declared dead at the scene, while the child was rushed to hospital in a critical condition where she later died.

He was also a notorious underworld figure in Durban who ran the 11th Street Gang – named after the unit in Chatsworth he was from – and built his drug distribution empire by waging a bloody war on the streets of Chatsworth by taking out his rivals in drive-by shootings.

Observers say the key to his success was forging ties to street gangs across Durban, including the feared Cartel Gang in Wentworth. Always by his side was his wife Joelene Naidoo-Kalicharan who embraced the lifestyle and was known for her expensive taste in clothes and jewellery.

At 2.30pm on Tuesday afternoon, as South Africa observed Human Rights Day, the lives of the Kalicharans, including that of their innocent nine-year-old daughter would come to an end.

On Peters Road in Springfield Park – an industrial zone in Durban – heavily armed gunmen pulled up alongside the family’s VW Amarok and sprayed it with bullets from both sides. More than 50 rounds of high calibre bullets penetrated the car. Brandon and Joelene were struck multiple times and died on the scene. Their nine-year-old daughter was still alive by the time paramedics arrived and was rushed to hospital. She would later succumb to her injuries.

“The motive for the killing is unknown, though preliminary investigations suggest that the man who was shot was allegedly involved in drug and gang-related activities in Chatsworth and was a person of interest on some cases being investigated by the Hawks.”

Netshiunda said the gunmen are unknown and a search for them is underway.

According to media reports Kalicharan was charged for the alleged 2008 murder of Gerald Arumugan, believed to have been part of a gang known as the Dre-Boys.

Arumugan was killed in a drive-by shooting in Chatsworth.

Two years ago Pillay claimed in media reports they were being harassed by police, who had raided their home, and denied her husband was a drug dealer.