Durban — Family members of the 10 men who were burnt to death by a gang of armed suspects after telling them to have sex with each other, referred to the house where the men were killed as a drug den.
On Sunday evening, a gang of suspects allegedly entered the house occupied by a group of men and asked for the homeowner. When they realised that the homeowner was not there, they allegedly instructed the men to undress and have sex with each other, before dousing them with petrol and setting them alight.
Eight of the men died at the scene while two others died later in hospital.
The daughter of one of the deceased, Thembelihle Khumalo, said the victims used the house as a meeting spot to smoke whoonga.
“We do not know the person who sold them drugs,” said Khumalo.
She said the house where the incident happened was being used by a young man after his parents died a long time ago.
She said it is still hard to erase the memory of the horrific incident.
She further said that the house where the incident happened was the subject of criticism in the community.
“The house was occupied by drug junkies, they were doing as they pleased and abusing the community.
“The community has had enough because there was a lot of criminal activity in the area and people were complaining about the house harbouring criminals,” said Khumalo.
She said that this was not the first incident. The house was attacked before and people armed with guns would come and attack the inhabitants.
She said that when she arrived on the scene on Sunday, her father’s body had severe burns and he was trying to exit the house.
“He fell on my feet, when I tried to hold him, part of his skin remained on my hands,” said Khumalo.
She said before her father died, he had told her that a group of people pointed guns at them and told them to have sex with each other.
“He told me that after they refused, they sprinkled them with petrol and went outside to set the house on fire,” said Khumalo.
Ntombintathu Mncwabe, a relative of another of the deceased, Mthokozisi Madlala, 39, said she was woken up by kids telling her about screams coming from nearby.
“We heard them saying they want to see who their drug suppliers will sell to. That’s when we saw that they were being killed for no reason, because even criminality that was rife in the community decreased,” Mncwabe claimed.
Ward councillor S’khanyiso Makhanya said he has been receiving complaints from community members, saying that they are not happy about the house because it was harbouring criminals.
KwaZulu-Natal Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC Sipho Hlomuka has called on the community structures to reject these kinds of criminality and incidents of mass killings which are causing panic among members of the community.
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