His son 10-year-old son Njabulo grabbed his younger brother and ran as fast as he could to a neighbour's house on Tuesday. Sipho fired shots at them - but missed.
Sipho then turned the gun and shot himself in the head.
His wife Thabile had finished preparing lunchboxes for the children at their Emndeni home in Soweto just after 5.40am when she was shot. It was not clear what sparked the shooting.
The Thusis had been married for 11 years and, apparently, often argued over maintenance of the children.
At some point Thabile moved out of the house and lived with her family. She decided to go back to her husband because the children wanted to live with their father.
When Thabile told her aunt she was moving back in with her husband, the aunt warned her not to go return. The couple, both in their early 30s, had threatened each other with a gun. A few months ago, police took Sipho's firearm away. But, at the insistence of his wife, police gave it back to him.
Eight months ago, when the couple were involved in another fight, Sipho decided to move out and rent a room. On Sunday he returned to the house in Emndeni. A neighbour, Lele Ntanda, said she was sleeping when she heard gunshots. "At first I thought it was crash. Then I heard a neighbour screaming 'Come and see, Sipho has shot his wife'. "I quickly changed and rushed out," Ntanda said.
When Ntanda arrived at the scene, the couple were already dead. Sipho was dressed in his Makro uniform when his shooting spree started.
Thabile's devastated aunt, Innocent Dube, said the family had tried on several occasions to solve the couple's problems. "I couldn't believe it when I heard they were dead. Thabile always spoke to me about her problems," Dube said.
According to the neighbour, who did not want to be named, the final straw was when the wife demanded more money for maintenance. Another neighbour said she had warned Thabile to move out of the house. "She told me the only way she was going to move out was when she was dead."
The children were taken to the Naledi police station for counselling.