The community of Khutsong, in the Merafong City Local Municipality of Gauteng, is reeling after the murder of a local councillor.

'You can tell by the deep level of grief that he loved his community and that the community loved him. I know it causes more pain that Malatjie died at the hands of another person," said Merafong Executive Mayor Nozuko Best at the Khutsong Community Hall during the funeral service of murdered Khutsong councillor Thabo Malatjie.

Best told mourners that Malatjie did not wait to be elected to effect change in his community, but had done so long before he became a councillor.

Malatjie won the election in Ward 4 in Khutsong Extension 3 in last year's local election, as an independent.

According to a report in the Carletonville Herald, Malatjie drove to Lesotho on 4 September with his friend Wesi Letingoana. They checked into a bed and breakfast in Maseru, where they befriended a man who asked Malatjie to take him and his three friends to another town.

Along the way, the men produced firearms and robbed Malatjie of R8,000, two cellphones and a laptop. They drove him to the mountainous area of Ramabanta where they shot and...