A SHANGHAI woman was murdered and a Chinese man was wounded in an armed robbery at their house in Witbank, about 150km east of the South African capital of Pretoria, on July 16.

Zhou Jianzhong, president of the Southern African Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Liaison Association, told Xinhua News Agency that the robbery occurred around 7:00am on Friday when two black gunmen broke into the house.

The dead woman was identified as Zhang Yali, 48, and the wounded man as Wang Xiande. A third Chinese man in the house at the time and who escaped injury was identified as Li Bin.

The robbers shot the two Chinese after they had ransacked the house and stolen a sum of money.

Wang was admitted to hospital with a gunshot wound to the arm and is in a satisfactory condition

South African police said they had received information about the identity of the robbers and were confident they will be able to track them down.

A police spokesman said the two offenders were locals who had murdered Zhang because she gave them US dollars instead of local money.

Crime capital

South Africa today has been labelled as one of the world's crime capitals where lawlessness is on the rise and where people feel less safe today than they did a few years ago.

In 1998, 60 per cent of South Africans said they felt very safe walking in the areas where they live during the day. This figure dropped to only 25 per cent last year.

In South Africa, many Chinese are involved in running import and export businesses or in operating stores. Most of them like to purchase by cash and being known to be unarmed they have become the target of gangsters.

While robberies in South Africa are not uncommon, being murdered after one is rare.

Zhou Jianzhong who has lived in the country for 12 years told the Shanghai Morning Post that Zhang's murder had shocked the Chinese community in South Africa because such a tragedy was an extremely rare occurrence.

Zhou said that usually when victims gave money to gangsters, they were not killed.

Doubts remain

Back in Shanghai, the victim's husband, Ji Shunkang, has doubts about the case and how his wife came to be murdered. He wants to know why the robbers shot her dead after the robbery.

"It was not necessary for the gangster to shoot my wife," said the angry husband Ji. "It is possible that my wife recognized one of the robbers."

Ji wants to know why, if statements that the robbers were firing wildly into the room are true, how his wife came to be shot precisely through the temple?

The wounded survivor, Wang Xiande has told police the gangsters had stood at the door of the house and fired five times into the room. Zhang was lying nearest to the door, he said, so she was shot dead.

But Ji is not satisfied with that explanation. "How could the gangster shoot her so exactly in the temple?" he said. "Why weren't the other two in the room with my wife killed?"

Ji also wants to know more about the uninjured man, Li Bin. Ji said his wife had never mentioned his name during their regular 50-minute weekly phone calls.

Ji said his wife had given him many details about her business operation but she had "never mentioned Li Bin so how could Li Bin have appeared at her home?" Ji asked.

Explaining a possible motive for the robbery, Wang told police the gangsters may have known he had US$6,000 which was intended to be used to open a new store.

However, Ji said he did not accept this story as his wife was having enough trouble running one store and would not have had the energy to open a second one.

Li Bin said he could understand the bereaved husband's doubts "because he doesn't know the situation in South Africa".

Li said that the robbers had tied the three Chinese up, searched for the money and had started to leave the house. They had then suddenly turned around and started shooting.

"When the first shot was fired I felt all of us would die. Maybe because of nervousness they missed me but Zhang was only one or two metres away from them and she was unlucky," Li said.

Li said South Africans thought Chinese were rich people and punishment for committing a crime was not severe. He claimed that the killing of Chinese after a robbery happened frequently.

South African police said they had no interest in investigating Wang and Li over the robbery and murder.

Lured by money

Li, also a Shanghainese, said he arrived in South Africa in 1992. He worked in Zhang's store at first. The three lived in an apartment with separate bedrooms and a shared visiting room. Li said Wang and Zhang were friends and also co-investors.

To the sad husband, his wife's going abroad was a total mistake.

Before going to South Africa, Zhang did business in Shanghai and had some bank savings. In 2001, Zhang met Wang who came back to Shanghai for a vacation. Wang encouraged the woman to do business with him in South Africa.

With the aim of earning big money, Zhang gave Wang

US$2,500 as a processing fee for going abroad without informing her family members in advance.

Ji agreed with his wife's decision and bought the ticket to South Africa. "If the business is not smooth, you should come back immediately," he told his wife. At that time, Zhang was 45 years old.

Tragedy strikes

Zhang did well in the strange country and her business was quite successful.

Three years ago, Zhang, who hadn't returned to Shanghai, decided to visit her home again by the end of this year. But tragedy struck instead.

Ji planned to fly to South Africa on July 21. "I should go to see her one last time," he said.

But without insurance, the family may not receive any compensation for its South African nightmare.