Durban - One minute Ziyanda Bomvane was sitting in a taxi chatting to her 6-year-old daughter, and the next the child had been shot.
The little girl suffered serious injury, having been wounded in the head, but was by Monday night conscious and able to talk.
“I don’t know what happened,” a distraught Bomvane told The Mercury on Monday.
She and her daughter are from the KwaDukuza area. They had planned to travel to Durban on Monday and boarded a taxi between 7.30am and 8am. The taxi was parked in the rank for a while. “I don’t know what it was waiting for - maybe for passengers.”
All of a sudden, she said, shots were fired.
“And my little girl had been shot.”
IPSS Medical Rescue’s paramedics were dispatched, but en route they were redirected to a local clinic where bystanders had taken Ziyanda and her mother, as well as another injured woman, IPSS said.
Paramedics found that the 6-year-old had been shot in the head and was in a critical condition. They placed her on a ventilator before taking her to hospital. The other patient had minor injuries to the face and was treated and taken to hospital.
Bomvane said that by late Monday afternoon Ziyanda was conscious and able to communicate. But the mother said she was still in shock and racked with worry.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Shooz Magudulela confirmed the incident.
“It is alleged that a taxi driver was stationary at a taxi rank when he was approached by a taxi rank security guard, who asked him if there was a problem. The (driver) responded and the security guard opened fire, wounding two passengers,” Magudulela said.
Umhlali police arrested the security guard at the scene on charges of attempted murder.
The Mercury