Four slain as gang brutalises family and now on the run

The survivor of a horrific attack has told how she heard her sister being shot in the head and watched her mother suffer the same fate before being raped at gunpoint at her home in Umlazi outside Durban yesterday.

Nompilo Mzila, 27, said the two gunmen killed her sister Hlengiwe while her one-year-old nephew clung to the 35-year-old's chest.

The attackers got into the house through a bathroom window after murdering her brothers Lungisani and Mlungisi, who were asleep in an outside room.

The horror attack occurred shortly after the duo had shot up a tavern nearby, injuring at least eight patrons in an apparent robbery.

Police said as many as four people were involved, but the surviving family members only recall the involvement of two men.

All that the gang had to show for their gruesome acts were three cellphones and some DVDs.

The only reason Mzila survived appears to have been the arrival of police on the scene. They were called by neighbours who reported multiple gunshots and screams from the house.

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"He raped me. When he was finished he went to the door and shot at the police. He died on our steps," said Mzila, who gave permission to be named.

A Flying Squad officer shot and killed the rapist, who had let off shots from the steps outside the home when he saw the flashing blue lights.

According to a well-placed police source with knowledge of the incident, the slain gunman had been arrested two months ago - by the same cop he shot at - for being in possession of an unlicensed gun. He was out on bail.

His accomplice fled into the night and remains at large.

"Even the other one, I wish he would die. He has taken my family away from me," Mzila said.

Yesterday morning she recounted the horrific series of events that she said would change her forever.

"I heard the gunshots and the screaming outside and at the time I didn't know what was happening. I know now that this was when they were killing my brothers," she said. The men were shot in the head.

She said when the two attackers forced their way inside her home they first encountered her sister and one-year-old nephew.

"They went into my sister's room and she screamed and they shot her in the head. They then came to our room and they were asking for cellphones and DVDs, and when my mother [Sibongile Mzila] was screaming they shot her as well.

"I was lying next to her in the bed," Mzila said. She was dragged into the passageway and raped within earshot of her brother Khulekani, 21.

The young man said: "She was next to me when they pulled her away and I could hear the guy raping her. The other one was pointing a gun at me. What could I do except listen? I was just shaking.

"I know the guy who the police killed, he lives in F Section down the road. I have seen him many times before and I know he is a gangster."

Police yesterday said they were searching for the remaining suspects.

A senior police officer, who was at the scene shortly after the killings, said the motive appeared to have been robbery, as it was at the tavern. He added that the house was likely chosen at random.

wicksj@timesmedia.co.za