Pretoria – Police Minister Bheki Cele has called on the South African Police Service (SAPS) to put “extra effort” into investigating the killing of 11 people in Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal province.
Cele and senior police officials visited the province on Thursday following the murders in two separate shooting incidents. On Sunday, six people were shot and killed in Umlazi’s U Section while on Tuesday, three gunmen opened fire inside a house in the township’s W Section, killing five people. Three others sustained serious injuries.
In a statement, Cele said while the SAPS was yet to make arrests in both cases, law enforcement agents were following up on a strong lead in one of the incidents that would hopefully shed more light into the motive and help police ascertain whether the shootings were linked.
“Most of those killed in both these incidents; including (a) 14 year old boy, were sadly people at the wrong place, at the wrong time, but some were unsavoury characters who were linked to criminality taking place in surrounding areas,” said Cele.
He said a profile of one of the deceased showed he was a convicted criminal who had been arrested and handed a 12-year suspended sentence for “very serious crimes” including armed robbery and the possession of an illegal firearm.
“However, police must find the killers of these 11 people, regardless of who they were and what they did,” Cele added.
On Thursday, Cele confirmed that the team of detectives who worked to arrest more than 50 people in connection with murders in Phoenix in July, had now been tasked with tracking down the suspects behind the Umlazi killings.
African News Agency (ANA)