Durban - A SANDF soldier has been remanded after appearing in the Pongola Magistrate’s Court on Monday charged with a double murder.
Tumelo Pheko, 35, is accused of shooting and killing brothers Wandile Zungu, 22, and Mandela Dlamini, 26, at around midnight on Friday in Golela, near the Eswatini border.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele on Monday said Pheko’s girlfriend, who police did not want named, claimed Dlamini and Zungu came to her home looking for dagga while she was with Pheko.
She apparently gave them the dagga but they refused to leave.
The girlfriend alleged Pheko, who was in uniform and carrying a rifle, intervened but Zungu and Dlamini refused to leave.
It is alleged he then cocked his gun and walked out of the room to address the two men, and his girlfriend said she then heard gunshots. She apparently tried to check on the men but Pheko chased her back into her room.
A few minutes later the girlfriend saw Pheko walking along the railway line and called neighbours for help.
The neighbours told her Pheko had shot and killed the two men, whose bodies were found along a railway line outside the house. Both were shot in the stomach, said Mbele.
Pheko was taken to police by SANDF management and his chaplain. He was then arrested and detained, and his R4 rifle seized.
Ward councillor Nomusa Nxumalo said the community had protested against soldiers coming to the area, as they felt they were abusive.
The SANDF said the police had opened a murder case.
The incident comes after SANDF rifleman Thembinkosi Ngcobo, 27, was sentenced to life imprisonment in February for going on a shooting rampage in 2017, killing one person and injuring 10, when he went looking for his girlfriend.