By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
SA Police Services (SAPS) in the Eastern Cape on Sunday confirmed that an eighteenth person has died from the Ngobozana village shooting, in Lusikisiki.
“Eastern Cape SAPS can confirm that the eighteenth victim passed away at the hospital today (Sunday),” said Eastern Cape provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Siphokazi Mawisa.
“There are no other new developments. However, police investigation is under way.”
Twelve women and a man were killed in one house and three women and a man were killed in the other house.
Fullview understand the shooting happened as families and neighbours had gathered to mark the end of their mourning period after a mother and daughter were murdered in the same village.
Police minister Senzo Mchunu said the motive behind the mass shootings in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape is still unknown.
Mchunu said investigations are ongoing and described the killings as “senseless.”
“Forensic investigators and the other investigators on a specialized basis standard doing the work, and are hoping that we will find some clues in terms of who did these heinous crimes. We’ll spare no moment and bring them to justice.
“The number of people that perished is intolerably a huge number of people, so we are already referring to that as a massacre. It’s a serious incident and those people [suspects] can’t escape justice,” Mchunu said.
Mchunu added that national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola had mobilised maximum resources to ensure the killers are found.
He vowed police would leave no stone unturned in the search for the assailants
“The national commissioner has deployed a dedicated team of detectives and forensic experts which include crime scene managers from Pretoria to piece all evidence together in a bid to apprehend these brutal criminals.
“We have full faith and confidence in the team that has been deployed to crack this case and find these criminals. Either they hand themselves over or we will fetch them ourselves, “Mchunu said.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and mass shootings have become increasingly common in recent years, sometimes targeting people in their homes.
Ten members of the same family, seven of them women and one a 13-year-old boy, were shot dead at their home in the neighbouring KwaZulu-Natal province last April.
South Africa’s murder rate is about 45 in every 100,000 people, compared with around 6.4 in every 100,000 in the US. Most European countries’ homicide rates are about 1 for every 100,000 people. South Africa, which has a population of about 62 million people, recorded more than 27,000 homicides in the 12 months from 1 March 2023, more than 70 a day.