By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South African Police Services (SAPS) have launched a manhunt for killers of five family members in Bityi near Port St Johns, Eastern Cape on Friday night.
Police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Siphokazi Mawisa, said – a husband and wife – were sleeping in a rondavel when two men entered and shot them dead.
The men then left the rondavel and began firing shots at another house where other family members were sleeping, resulting in the death of three more people and the injury of two others, said Mawisa.
Mawisa added, the two surviving children managed to escape and alert neighbours, who informed the police.
Eastern Cape police commissioner, Lieutenant General Nomthetheleli Mene, has mobilised all available resources to hunt for the gunmen.
Mene condemned the act and deployed a team of seasoned detectives to hunt down the attackers.
Last month, 18 people were gunned down at two homesteads in the same street in Ngobozana village in the coastal town of Lusikisiki.