Revenge behind bodies in field?

Specialist hit task team probes death of men found near Coega

THE four men whose bodies were found in a field near Coega at the weekend are believed to have been killed in a revenge attack. While the motive for the murders is still unknown, police have roped in the specialist detective task team which specialises in hit-related murders. Police said yesterday three of the men had been identified by their families.

They are Athenkosi Steven, 21, of New Brighton, Nyaniso Maso, 30, and Sive Vangqa, 26, both of Kwazakhele.

Police have not released the name of the fourth victim, who has not yet been identified by relatives.

The men’s bodies were found in the bushes about 20m from a Grassridge gravel road near Coega on Saturday.

A postmortem revealed that the men were strangled, stabbed and endured blunt-force trauma to the head.

They were abducted by an unknown number of gunmen from Steven’s house in New Brighton on Thursday and forced into a white VW Jetta.

A preliminary report revealed that three of them had previously been arrested for crimes such as burglary, theft and drug-related incidents, but the cases were subsequently withdrawn.

Police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge said witness-related killings had been ruled out and that the men were believed to be involved in crime in the area.

“It is believed that this is a revenge attack for criminal incidents that the men were believed to be involved in.”

Asked about the men’s prior ar- rests, Beetge said that all cases against them had been withdrawn, but police were still waiting for forensic results to see if they were possibly linked to other crimes.

Detectives suspect the men were either targeted by a criminal gang or a group of victims they had allegedly targeted.

“At this stage, everything is speculation and we are still gathering evidence,” a detective said.

“The motive is unclear but the fashion in which this was done has led us to suspect an orchestrated attack.

“We are looking into this being a revenge attack of sorts.

“Either the killers were victims [of the men] or they were targeted by a gang for some reason,” he said. “What exactly they are supposed to have done is unknown at this stage.” Asked whether the men had been killed at the site where their bodies were found, or just dumped there, Beetge said they were still waiting for the forensic report.

In a similar murder in May, the bodies of Masixole Booi, 26, and Zanenkosi Nonjiwa, 28, were found in a field near the Nkandla settlement on the outskirts of Joe Slovo.

They had both been shot in the head at close range with a shotgun.

Police suspected the motive was a territorial dispute between gangs of robbers operating in the metro.

Killers were victims [of the men] or were targeted for some reason