WEDNESDAY, 10 August marks a month since the shooting at Mdlalose Tavern, which claimed 16 lives.
Although a month has passed since heavily armed men stormed into the tavern in Orlando East, Soweto, and started firing randomly, no arrests have been made.
Sebenzile Mngwenyama (23) lost her boyfriend Sphethuxolo Chiliza (26) and her brother Philani (20) to the attack, just four days before her baby was born.
She told Daily Sun she named her son Owami, which means “he is mine”, because he didn’t have a father.
“It’s hard, but I will have to bear with the situation. There’s nothing more I can do,” she said.
Sebenzile said it would take her a long time to recover from losing her baby daddy and her brother.
During a community meeting last month, the cops promised to intensify the search. On 11 July, Police Minister Bheki Cele told reporters that five suspects were identified. However, not one of them has been arrested a month later.
Nomasonto Dlamini (42), who lost her cousin Sbongiseni Jokazi (35), said her family had lost all hope that the police would make arrests.
“The TRT (Tactical Response Team) unit was here for the first two weeks but now they are no longer here,” she said.
Nomasonto said they couldn’t find closure as they didn’t know who killed their loved ones and why.
“What we want is for these people to be arrested. It can’t be that they killed so many people and got away with it,” she said.
Meanwhile, the tavern has not reopened and residents said they hadn’t seen the owner since the shooting.
Gauteng police spokeswoman Brigadier Brenda Muridili said there were no updates on the case, and that the TRT unit was still in the area.
