By Everson Luhanga
A turf war between two KwaZulu-Natal rival groups who live in the notorious Nhlanzeni hostel in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni has claimed three more lives.
Three people were shot and killed on Thursday night after a gang of more than six people carrying rifles opened fire on the victims who were sitting in a blue Citi Golf.
The victims had multiple gunshot wounds. Police found over 60 cartridges at the scene.
Residents in the streets where the incident happened fear the gunmen might return as this has been a continuous war between the two groups from Nquthu and Msinga.
When the Scrolla.Africa team arrived at the scene, there was still blood in the street.
The car where the three victims were sitting before the ambush was covered in bullet holes.
A Quantum taxi that was parked behind the Citi Golf took its share of bullets hitting the driver’s seat door and the front right wheel.
Bullets penetrated nearby shacks with owners surviving to tell the tale of their lucky escape.
Speaking to Scrolla.Africa, one resident who asked not to be identified in fear of the armed gang, said he had just got into bed at about 10pm when gunshots echoed through the quiet streets.
“It was frightening as some shots went through my shack. I took cover under my bed with my two children in case stray bullets hit out bed,” he said.
Sources said more than 30 people have so far died in this feud between these two rival groups.
The May to June killings at the hostel prompted the Gauteng provincial police commissioner General Elias Mawela to lead a raid at the hostel in June.
Speaking to the media on the night of the raid, General Mawela said the rampant crime and fighting at the hostel comes from rival gangs from KwaZulu-Natal, battling it out in Gauteng.
“Within a short space of time, we have five incidents of murders, and also five other people were nearly killed. We found that it is rival groups all the way from KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.
General Mawela said at the time that the groups were fighting for their own things in KwaZulu-Natal, and now they had brought their fight to the hostel.
Police were not the only officials who tried to intervene and quell the fights.
The chairperson of Izinduna in Tembisa, Siphiwe Mhlongo said: “The fight between Nquthu and uMsinga is orchestrated mostly by zama zamas and clashes in the taxi industry.”
Pictured above: The crime scene where three men were shot and killed by a gang of more six men riffles.
Image source: Everson Luhanga
