Durban – POLICE swooped on five suspected hit men in Cato Manor, Durban, yesterday after receiving a tip-off that the men were planning a hit. Police arrested the men after a dramatic shoot-out. The suspects, who police said were driving a stolen Nissan Navara, were found with two AK-47 rifles.
Provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said police received a tip-off and managed to corner one of the two vehicles the suspects were travelling in.
“Our officers were working on the ground when they received information of a vehicle with suspicious occupants in the area. The informant was of the opinion these guys were in the area to take someone out, so our police were called for backup. There were two vehicles the suspects were in.”
Naicker said five of the men were in the Nissan Navara when they were confronted by police and it is believed a sixth suspect managed to escape in the second vehicle. He said an investigation was continuing and it was too early to formulate charges.
“From what we have seen, these gentlemen meant business. The main thing is if they are hit men, they will be linked somehow to other cases.”
KwaZulu-Natal Community Safety MEC Sipho Hlomuka and the SAPS provincial commissioner in KZN, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, was also at the scene.
Witnesses said they heard gunshots and ran for cover, fearing for their lives.
“I was inside the clinic when I heard multiple gunshots, and we all ran inside the clinic, even the nurses, because we thought these people were entering the clinic to attack or rob us.
“The security guards closed the gates and doors and then after some time we realised this was all happening outside the clinic,” said a resident.
Yesterday, Hlomuka praised the police for responding swiftly and arresting the suspects.
“We thank the police for the good work done in saving someone’s life today. We should work together with law-enforcement agencies by giving them tip-offs like they received today.
“Police officers alone cannot do everything and all stakeholders must work together,” said Hlomuka.
The suspects are expected to appear in court soon.
The issue of how hit men operate in KZN with impunity was given prominence recently when rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes and his friend, Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, were shot outside a Florida Road restaurant in Durban.
Kim Thomas, an analyst with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, released a 2021 report titled “Murder By Contract: Targeted killings in eastern and southern Africa”, which showed KZN was consistently home to the most contract killings between 2015 and 2020.
Political killings and turbulence in the local taxi industry, according to the report, were key contributors to KZN being labelled the country’s assassination capital.
A petition calling for justice for Forbes had thousands of signatures.
Started by a woman named Lelo N, the petition is addressed to commissioner Mkhwanazi, national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola and Police Minister Bheki Cele, and expresses the sentiments of many South Africans fed up with crime.
In the petition, Lelo recalls how a hit man walked into their home and fired several shots at her father.
“Unlike AKA, my father had to go through excruciating pain of knowing what was happening to him. Bleeding and perhaps losing air, he tried to flee to one of the other rooms in the house as the hit man followed him.
“He shot through the door of one of the rooms my father had ran into when trying to call an unresponsive emergency number. The hit man went in and shot, hitting him with another bullet in his hand as God knows he was trying to fight the hit man off.
“My father finally succumbed to weakness from blood loss. As he dropped to the ground, he was shot three more times. The next time I saw my father, he was in a hospital ER with blood dripping from his neck and bullets through his body,” Lelo said.
She said despite her father surviving the shooting, he became a quadriplegic, and three years later died of renal failure.
“He died a very sad man who never knew justice, despite suspects being provided to the police with motivating statements. All we were left with was the sad memory of his last three years, a young single mom of three young children and the case number of another South African cold case.”
Lelo said justice needed to be served.