Woman, 3 men mowed down in hail of bullets

Survivors say slaying is revenge for stealing drugs

WE ROBBED the druglord of his drugs, and then we smoked them, said one of three people who survived a slaying in which four others were mowed down.

They said revenge for the stolen and smoked tik and mandrax was the motive.

The four – one a woman, all aged 30 – were shot execution-style in an abandoned railway house near the Mthatha Plaza on Wednesday.

One survivor, speaking with the others around him, said while a woman was being shot in cold blood, her boyfriend was cowering in the ceiling above.

The three survivors – who are not being named for their safety – told the Dispatch their group of seven was targeted by a known Mthatha druglord after they “robbed” his dealers of drugs.

Police would not confirm this claim. Police spokeswoman Captain Dineo Koena said they were investigating four murders.

“The police are looking for the suspects. Three men and a woman were all shot in the upper body.

“Police found 10 empty pistol cartridges at the scene. We do not know the motive. The killing happened at about 8pm on Wednesday,” she said.

Two survivors said they had intervened to stop the dealers by robbing them of their stash of highly addictive drugs.

“Towards the end of last year we robbed some guys of the drugs they were selling. The drugs included mandrax and tik. But after that we heard their boss was looking for us and there had been some threats that they would kill us. So we believe this was a revenge attack.”

The other man said that on Wednesday, while they were in town, the car of a druglord had followed them. They escaped at a taxi rank. “We saw this coming. We suspected something bad was about to happen, but never thought that people will be shot and killed.”

The woman who was killed was a girlfriend of one of the three who escaped. “She was the live-in girlfriend of Jerome [not his real name]. The men came in and asked for Jerome and opened fire, killing the four. He hid in the ceiling and the shooters did not see him.’’

People living nearby said they heard some gunshots but did not know what was happening.

Koena and KSD public safety head and ward councillor Tshepo Machaea described the area as beset by a crime wave.

Machaea said they met with railway officials yesterday to express concern over the structures being used as crime dens.

“We urged the railway officials to demolish these structures as the area is just a hideout for criminals.’’

Residents interviewed said many people were mugged in the area. —