Durban – Six people have been shot dead by five armed men in a house in Georgedale near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Saturday.
The shooting happened on Friday night shortly after 9pm, Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said.
“The men knocked at the door asking for someone by the name of Siyanda,” she said.
As soon as the door was opened the men opened fire, going through the whole house and shooting whoever they came across.
According to Mbhele there were five gunmen. Four men and two women were killed, while a seventh person was seriously wounded. Three of those killed were from the same family. They were aged between 20 and 37.
The motive for the shooting was not immediately known but the drug "whoonga" had been found at the house.
The case had been handed over to the police’s provincial task team, Mbhele said.
According to the KwaZulu-Natal health department, Whoonga is sold as a powder and is usually mixed with dagga and smoked. The active chemicals in Whoonga, or “sugars” as it is known in Chatsworth, are low grade or residual heroin, cocaine, and strychnine.
Products such as scouring powder Vim and asbestos are added to the drug to “bulk it up” and there have been reports of anti-retroviral medication being added.
Georgedale is in the Mpumulanga area about 40km west of Durban.