By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Two suspects have been arrested and one of them has been shot dead in connection with the mass murder of 10 family members in Pitermaritzburg, Durban.
Police Minister Bheki Cele has confirmed the arrests and shooting while assessing the crime scene.
At least one suspect managed to flee the scene.
Cele visited the area after 10 members of a family were shot dead by gunmen who entered the home in the early hours of the morning.
“It has been confirmed that 10 people here are dead, the youngest 13 and the oldest 63, who happened to be the mother of the house,” Cele said.
“It does look like it’s a family, most people that are there are of the same surname and those that are not of the same surname had some sort of a relationship.
“Police received information that there are people who were doing some cleansing about a kilometre from here. They went to see that scene and found 4 people standing outside and as they saw the police, they exchanged fire with the police. Police shot back, killed one, injured one who is arrested, arrested one who is not injured and one has run away, fortunately, they know who ran away.”
Cele says the deceased suspect is linked to several crimes in the area.
“This place has not been giving us peace for a long time. The guy has been linked to some murders and fortunately, the Uber guy that we spoke to seems to be knowing a lot, because he has been driving them around when they commit all these cases.”
Three firearms were also seized by police and will be tested to see if they are linked to any crimes.
Msunduzi Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla says national government needs to provide additional resources to the Plessislaer police station near Pietermaritzburg to address the crime in the area.
“More needs to be done to capacitate that police station,” the mayor said.
“That is what we will raise with him (Police Minister Bheki Cele) because we know when it was built, it was for a certain number of people, but the area now has grown.
“So, they [police] are working in a bigger area with more people, somehow either they restructure the way they are working, or they capacitate this police station,” said Thebolla.