Cape Town - In a bloody weekend, police were picking up bodies in different locations in the province, some the victims of an alleged mob justice attack and another a mass killing in Wellington, while two gunshot victims were discovered outside a house in Belhar.
In Mfuleni, police were scouring a river stream where, people alleged, the bodies of four people who were victims of a mob justice attack were thrown into the stream that runs across the Covid-19 informal settlement in Driftsands on Saturday.
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said as part of the inquiry, police divers were called out to the area late on Saturday. Their search led to the retrieval of a body of an unidentified man who was not linked to the four missing people.
Potelwa said on Sunday morning the police resumed the search along the banks of the stream.
“Due to the rainy weather that caused the water levels to rise, a search inside the river stream by the police divers proved difficult to execute. However, another body was recovered from the water by divers on Sunday afternoon,” said Potelwa.
Sindiswa Wanga, 40, mother to Asonele, 15, one of the victims, said she was told her son was beaten to death and thrown into the river. Wanga said she last saw her son on Friday, before they heard of his death on Facebook on Saturday.
She admitted he was involved in "criminal activities".
Nangamso Mazamisa, a sister of Maphelo, another alleged mob justice victim, said her mother told her not to report the case to the police because they did not have money to bury him.
In Wellington, four men were shot and killed on Saturday evening.
Potelwa said reports indicated gunmen clad in black with their faces concealed entered a property in Mnandi street, Newrest, Wellington, and went to a shack at the back of the premises.
She said several shots were fired resulting in the death of four men in their 20s and one sustaining serious gunshot injuries.
In Belhar, police were investigating a case of murder and attempted murder after they found two men who sustained gunshot wounds lying in front of a house at Bergsig Street on Sunday.
Potelwa said the motive for the attack was unknown, and the unidentified suspects fled the scene and were yet to be arrested.
“A 21-year-old man was declared deceased on the scene while a 39-year-old man was transported to a nearby hospital for medical treatment,” said Potelwa.
In Nyanga, police were investigating four counts of attempted murder after three men and a woman, travelling in a grey Hyundai near Sithandathu and Zwelitsha drive in Nyanga, came under gun fire.
Provincial community policing forum board chairperson Fransina Lukas said it was really sad and shocking that human life meant so little and that it could be taken in an eye-wink due to crime and criminality.
Anyone with information that could assist in the investigations was urged to contact the Crime Stop number, 0860010111, or the MySAPSApp.