RESIDENTS from Khayelitsha in the Harare area are shocked after eight people were shot and killed in their kasi on Wednesday morning, 17 April.
The bodies of four men and one woman were found on Ncumo Street in Harare following a shooting incident around 6am.
Another body of a man was found not far away from where five other bodies were found.
Two other bodies were also found on Feza Street, a distance away but within the same vicinity.
A resident who knew the dead said all the six were together at a house on Ncumo Road when the sixth person, who was a few meters away, came from the house where the other five were killed.
Residents said the dead were known, and some of them took drugs, but they don't know what led to their deaths.
Phumla Nkomana, a mother who lost two sons in the shooting, said she is still trying to accept that her two sons are gone.
She said Nceba Nkomana (41) and Collen Nkomana (40), together with his girlfriend and their cousin, were all killed inside their home.
Phumla said she doesn't know why her children were killed.
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“I don’t know why. I just received a message from my sister telling me that they had been killed inside their home earlier today, but I don’t know what happened. I know they used to take drugs, but they have stopped. They were recovery addicts and were working at the car wash. We are in pain about what happened,” said Phumla.
Another mother, Nolubabalo Ncanywa, said her son Yibanathi Ncanywa (30) was killed just close to the house where the brothers were killed.
She said her son was a drug addict but didn't deserve to die like he did.
“What I knew is that he was a drug addict on the streets, but at home, he was a sweet soul. I feel like I’m having a bad dream, which I wish to wake up from. I just want someone to tell me that this is not true,” said the mother.
A resident who knows the dead said he suspects the victims were killed by the protection fee gang.
The source, who identified all the dead by their names, said they probably robbed a protected shop.
“I heard from the streets that they could have robbed a spaza shop protected by the protection fee gang, so they went after them. I know all of them. I used to hang out with them. I’m not surprised about what happened because someone said they were warned by the gang not to touch that specific shop,” he said.
Community leader Ndithini Tyhido said the government must ensure integrated solutions to fight crime ekasi.
Western Cape police spokesman, Colonel Andre Traut, confirmed the incident.
“Detectives attached to the Provincial Serious and Violent Crimes unit are pursuing a number of leads and are working around the clock to get to the bottom of three separate incidents that claimed the lives of eight people in total.
"Preliminary investigations into the multiple murders in Harare this morning led detectives to believe that two incidents that preceded the one in Ncumu Street could possibly be linked. At around 2:50 am, an adult male and his adult girlfriend were shot and killed in Feza Street, Harare, and shortly after that, a 35-year-old male was shot and killed not far from the first scene.
“Three hours later, the murders in Ncumu Street were committed, possibly by the same suspects,” added Traut.
