Police have revealed that at least three of the five men who were killed in Mfuleni on Sunday had a criminal past.
The men were shot as they were sitting inside a shack.
On Monday morning, provincial police commissioner Thembisile Patekile visited Mfuleni police station before proceeding to the crime scene at the corner of Polisa and Deputy Streets.
He said police believe the motive for the attack was extortion-related.
Patekile reports: “At about 1.30pm on Sunday afternoon, a shooting took place, where five people were shot dead.
“According to the information that we have, there were two armed men - one had an automatic rifle and another had a hand gun.
“They got inside the shack and shot the five, they all died at the scene. One of the deceased lived in that shack, it would appear that these are his friends.
“We suspect that the motive for the murder is extortion-related. But our investigation, as it continues, will tell us if there was another motive.”
Patekile said one of the deceased was facing a rape charge.
The top cop adds: “What we have gathered is that the owner of the shack had other cases, a rape case, it was in court. Two others who died with him had previous cases, which were dealt with in 2017/18, drug cases.”
Patekile also said the shooters were looking for the leader of an extortion racket when they wiped out the friends.
He explains: “We don’t know why all of a sudden they [the deceased] were sought and killed. What we know is that they [shooters] were looking for someone who normally hides in that shack. He is one of the leaders of an extortion group.
“We have no suspects, we have been given their description. We are pleading with the community to help us to solve this case.
“It comes as a shock to us that we had this mass shooting in Mfuleni, which has not been an issue for sometime.”
Police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said the victims were between the ages of 19 and 30.
One of them is Vuyo Gonono, 19, whose uncle Zandisile Marawu said they were saddened by his death.
The hartseer relative says: “We don’t even know how we are going to bury him because we didn’t expect this to happen.
“He was still very young, we expected so much from him.
“We don’t know how the State can help us with this kind of violence. We don’t even know what happened. When we arrived he was dead already. Apparently he was sleeping when the shooters arrived.”
Residents are still shook and told the Daily Voice: “We don’t know if they are going to come back or not and we don’t know if we are next. We are shocked that this happened in our community.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za