Three shot dead and 7 hurt in revenge attack
Survivors relive harrowing ordeal
Three friends were shot dead in Dobsonville, Soweto, on Sunday in what the family believes is a revenge attack.
Seven other people, including a three-year-old child, were also shot and injured.
Jermina Motlaledi, 59, was narrowly missed by a hail of bullets that killed her brother Tsietsi Ramoloko and family friends Mohlomi Mothela and Tebogo Lenong.
Motlaledi said the shooting happened two days after a warning from a family friend, who told her that there was a hit ordered against her family by someone who had a fight with Ramoloko a week before.
On Sunday, Motlaledi walked into a bloodied house with people screaming and calling for help.
Others were lying motionless in a pool of blood.
“Tsietsi and his friends had been involved in a fight when he visited the friends in one of the hostels in Dobsonville.
“This was after a man came and pointed fingers at them. When they asked what was wrong, he ran away.
“They chased, caught and beat him up. I don’t understand how someone can do such a cruel thing to even shoot an innocent three-yearold child. It is difficult for us as family members to come to terms with what happened,” Motlaledi said.
Police spokesperson Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said police were investigating three cases of murder and seven of attempted murder. No one had been arrested yet.
When Sowetan visited the scene on Monday, Motlaledi’s house floor was still covered in blood and the walls riddled with bullet holes. The house looked like a war zone as family members tried to scrub off blood from the floor.
One of the survivors, Itumeleng Thulo, 23, said she was lucky to be alive after she was shot in the knee.
“When I heard the gunshots I managed to crawl to the other room. I only realised later that I was also shot when I felt a sharp pain on my right knee,” Thulo said.
She was among a group of people who were rushed to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. Thulo said nurses only cleaned her wound without removing the bullet.
Bibi Manjati, 38, a salon owner who operates in a shack in the same yard, said it was through the grace of God that they survived.
“We had just finished plaiting our last client when we heard the gunshots. We immediately lay on the floor.
“As the gunmen were passing by our salon, they realised that there were people inside. They came back and saw Mapaki who was hiding behind the salon and fired shots at him before leaving. I was silently praying to God to spare us our lives,” she said.