Johannesburg road rage shooting leaves family shattered as widow learns of husband’s death a day later
For more than 24 hours after a road rage incident in Emmarentia, Johannesburg, ended in gunfire, Tehseen Zahara Faisal lay in a hospital bed with gunshot wounds to her hand and shoulder, unaware that her husband was dead.
Strapped down and sedated after Sunday’s shooting, she had no idea what had happened to 48-year-old Faisal Ul Rehman. Her family, reeling from the shock, could not bring themselves to tell her either.
By late Monday morning, however, they were forced to confront the moment they had been dreading. As Rehman’s next of kin, she was the only person who could decide what should happen to his body — whether he would be buried in South Africa or repatriated to Pakistan.
"So we sat her down and told her the truth," Muhammad Wasi Haider, Rehman's nephew, told IOL on Tuesday morning.
"She did not take it well."
The shooting followed what police have described as a minor collision on Barry Hertzog Avenue, one of the main routes cutting through the northern suburbs, and escalated with terrifying speed.
Gauteng police spokesperson Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said Rehman was killed after a small crash turned into a fist fight and then a deadly exchange of gunfire.
"It is alleged that a female passenger, suspected to be the wife of one of the drivers, went to get a firearm from the car, and the second driver also pulled out his firearm, resulting in a shooting which claimed the life of the husband, leaving the other driver and the female passenger injured," Nevhuhulwi said.
"The police will be investigating a case of murder and attempted murder.
"The public, especially drivers, is urged to always abide by traffic rules and exercise patience while using public roads to avoid road rage situations."
A 58-year-old man was arrested at the scene and is expected to appear in the Johannesburg magistrate's court on Tuesday, only hours before Rehman is due to be buried at Westpark Cemetery. The court appearance and the burial, taking place in such close succession, have layered an already traumatised family’s grief with the pressure of urgent legal and religious processes.
The brutality of the scene has been captured in a video recorded in the immediate aftermath and widely shared on social media. It shows the human cost of a confrontation that spiralled far beyond a minor fender-bender.
In the footage, Rehman’s young daughter can be seen screaming and crying over her father’s body as it lies on the side of the road. Her younger brother, his small hands smeared in blood, is seen desperately trying to revive his father by performing CPR. Nearby, their mother sits wounded on the ground, bleeding from her gunshot injuries, seemingly in shock and unable to move towards her children.
For relatives, those images have compounded an already overwhelming loss.
Haider, the son of Rehman’s sister, had to identify his uncle’s body at the mortuary on Monday — a task that has left him struggling to cope.
He said his mind "has not worked properly since".
"I consider myself a very smart person, but my brain is not working," he said.
"I went to his house and I couldn't. I just couldn't… it was all just too much.
"We're still all in very bad shock. I saw the children yesterday.
"They're feeling a bit better, but it is still very difficult."
The children, who witnessed both the argument and the shooting, now face the dual trauma of losing their father and seeing both parents shot in front of them. Family members say they are trying to shield the youngsters as far as possible while dealing with formalities around the burial and possible repatriation.
Haider sketched a picture of Rehman as a hardworking man whose life revolved around his family and his business.
He said Rehman was born in August 1977 and that he was a car dealer who rebuilt and sold vehicles from a floor in Pretoria. It is a trade that often involves handling large sums of cash and valuable stock, and, like many in the motor trade, Rehman owned a licensed firearm.
He said he owned a licensed firearm because of the nature of his work.
Haider was adamant that his uncle was not a man prone to violence and doubted that he had ever used the weapon recreationally.
Haider said he doubted his uncle had ever even fired it at a shooting range for fun. He had no criminal record.
"You can search his ID," Haider said.
"He never had a criminal record.
"He just had it [the firearm] for safety reasons because of the business that we do."
The circumstances of the shooting — including who fired first and exactly how the confrontation escalated — will form part of the police investigation. For Rehman’s family, however, those details feel secondary to the impact on the people he leaves behind.
But what haunts the family most is what his death has done to everyone who depended on him.
Relatives now face the immediate task of supporting a widow recovering from gunshot wounds and two children scarred by extreme violence. Decisions have had to be made quickly in line with Islamic funeral traditions, which favour burial as soon as possible after death. That urgency has unfolded alongside the formalities of identifying the body, dealing with the mortuary and liaising with authorities over the suspect’s court appearance.
The case has also reignited concerns about rising aggression on South African roads and the ready availability of firearms during moments of anger and frustration. Nevhuhulwi’s appeal for patience behind the wheel comes amid a broader national conversation about how easily everyday disputes can escalate into deadly confrontations.
While investigators prepare for a court process that will attempt to piece together the legal and factual narrative of what happened on Barry Hertzog Avenue, Rehman’s relatives are confronting a different reality: the empty space left in their family structure and the long-term psychological and financial consequences of his killing.
As Westpark Cemetery prepares to receive yet another victim of gun violence, a wounded wife in a hospital ward, two traumatised children, and an extended family in Pretoria and Pakistan are left to find a way forward from a moment that unfolded in seconds but will shape their lives for years to come.
