DURBAN - The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is investigating the shooting of five people at Ansteys Beach on the Bluff, Durban.
It is alleged that the shooting happened while they were leaving a birthday party at the beach last month when an argument broke out between the partygoers and members of the SANDF.
Tashwill Bunting, 36, said he was sitting in the car with his girlfriend in the back seat when he heard gunshots. He believes he was the first to get shot.
“There are nights when I close my eyes and all I hear are gunshots,” said one of the five people who was allegedly shot.
Bunting said they were at the party for a police officer. The officer noticed that Bunting was hit in the head and asked the driver of the car to rush him to hospital.
“It was like a movie. All I could hear was gunshots and as we were driving off they drilled our car with bullets,” said Bunting.
Bunting believes his girlfriend was injured the worst.
“She was hit in the foot and the ankle. Her one leg is in a cast. She got grazed on the arm and she also lost her right eye,” he said.
Ricardo Lottering, 38, who was shot in the leg, recalls seeing his wife and Bunting’s girlfriend get shot before the gunmen came towards the car and “tried to finish us off”.
“I fired a couple of shots to make them go back and they carried on shooting a few times.
“Then the policeman went out with his hands in the air and shouted at these guys to ‘please stop’.
“They stopped and went back to where they were staying,” said Lottering.
He said at no point did these men identify themselves.
“We didn’t know if we were getting robbed or hijacked,” said Lottering.
A family member who wishes to remain anonymous said it was like a “massacre that shook the Bluff community and traumatised the family”.
The woman said that the gunmen were seen collecting their bullet casings while some of the injured were being treated at the scene.
SANDF spokesperson Brigadier General Mafi Mgobozi confirmed that defence force members were involved in the shooting but could not comment.
“They were members but we have agreed with police to refrain from commenting as the matter has been handed over for investigation,” said Mgobozi.
Ipid spokesperson Moses Dlamini confirmed that the directorate was investigating.