By Everson Luhanga
At least four people, including two patrollers, were killed in Alexandra township in a resurgence of violent crime.
On Thursday night, the patrollers – as well as a woman, and a man – were shot. The unidentified man died on the scene, while the woman was rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds.
On Friday night, unknown gunmen opened fire at five patrollers, killing one of them.
In another instance after that, the killers walked down Martin Mabitsela Street in Ext 8 and mistook two young men for patrollers. They shot and killed both of them.
One of the slain patrollers was Thulane “Msholozi” Zuma, who was one of the organisers of the Alexandra shutdown in 2019 over service delivery.
He volunteered and recently organised street patrollers in the township. He was shot several times and died on the scene.
This brings to six the number of street patrollers killedsince the beginning of this year and several others surviving gunshot wounds.
Also on Friday night, another man was shot and rushed to a local clinic along Roosevelt and Fourth Avenue, opposite Madala hostel. Several shots were also fired in the air while the man was being robbed of his personal belongings.
The four suspects then jumped into a silver grey VW Polo, without number plates, and drove off leaving the bloodied man on the floor. A taxi operator took him to the nearby Masakhane Clinic.
Vincent Ndima, an Alexandra community leader, told Scrolla.Africa that after the incident, angry community members joined Alexandra police, JMPD Special Unit, private security, and street patrollers to hunt for the killers.
“Although we didn’t find them, we won’t rest until we find the killers,” said Ndima.
The criminals were said to have run to Stjwetla informal settlement. This is the same area where five suspected criminals were beaten and burnt to death last month.
A patroller who asked not to be named said the township needed intervention from the authorities to stop the killings and hijackings.
In May this year, five patrollers were shot and two died in Stjwetla. (LINK)
In June last year, Alexandra saw a wave of mass killings where six people including Alex FM DJ Joshua Mbatha, were killed. Police arrested 12 men in connection to the killings.
The 2022 killings compelled Minister of Police Bheki Cele and Gauteng senior government officials to hold a crime imbizo at the Alexandra stadium where plans to combat crime were spoken about.
