Seven mourners gunned down in horror attack

Residents in the small village of Tantseka, in the Sithebe administrative area near Qunu in the Eastern Cape, have been left terrified after seven people died in a hail of bullets late on Wednesday.

The victims were reportedly in mourning and  preparing to bury a relative who had been gunned down in the same household on Tuesday last week.

Eastern Cape police have appealed to community members to assist in trying to catch the killers.

Acting provincial police commissioner Maj-Gen Thandiswa Kupiso expressed shock at the incident and directed t a team of policing units be assigned to investigate.

Provincial police spokesperson Col Priscilla Naidu said the shootings were understood to have happened shortly before midnight.

“Three unknown armed men forced their way into a homestead in Tantseka and opened fire,” she said.

“Six people succumbed to their injuries at the scene while a seventh victim died in hospital.”

She confirmed the victims had been arranging the burial of Novotile Mgxada, 62, the wife of the owner of the homestead.

She was fatally shot last week.

Naidu said the investigation had been taken over by the provincial organised crime unit.

At the homestead on Thursday morning, several women were seen crying uncontrollably.

They declined to be interviewed, saying they were too frightened.

Mgxada’s distraught husband, Mlamli, said he was not present when the gunmen burst in because he had fled his home after his wife’s murder last week.

In that attack, gunmen had arrived and demanded to see the man of the family.

His wife had lied and said he was not home.

They then opened fire and killed her and seriously wounded the couple’s nine-year-old grandchild.

“This is too painful. They wiped out my family. Andiyazi ndibethelwa ntoni [I don’t know why I’m being targeted],” he said.

“I don’t know what they want. I am a God-fearing man, I don’t drink alcohol and I don’t steal. I amt shattered.”

Mgxada confirmed his wife was due to have been buried on Saturday but the plans would be shelved after the mass murder of his family.

He identified the seven victims as his older brother’s wife Notawuzile Fukuzana, 68, his own daughter, Nokulunga Mgxada, 38, his youngest sister, Ntombelanga Mgxada, 42, his oldest sister, Nomasango Mkangeli, 79, Ntombelanga’s two sons, Phumzile, 30, and Nkosinoxolo, 29, and Nkosinoxolo’s friend, Gcobani Gwaqubana, 29.

Mgxada said his eldest son and his wife, who were present at the time of the attack, had survived by fleeing.

He said the gunmen had reportedly demanded R50,000 which they believed had been given to the family by burial societies and stokvels in the village.

Members of the societies had met at his home earlier on the night of the attack.

“I don’t know what I will do. It was a financial struggle to prepare for my wife’s funeral.

“I had R15,000 to buy a cow for her funeral. That money is gone. They [gunmen] took it.”

He said one of the seven victims had died not far from a garage on the N2 while being rushed to hospital.

Police had not allowed him to view the bodies of his slain relatives.

Mgxada dispelled rumours that the hit on his family could have been linked to an anti-stock theft vigilante group called Masifumanisane, of which they were members.

He said they had joined the group so they could be helped when stock thieves hit.

OR Tambo district police commissioner Maj-Gen Phumzile Cetyana visited the scene on Thursday.

One of Mgxada’s neighbours, who did not want to be named, said the entire village was frightened after the incident.

It was the third time someone had been killed in Tantseka recently.

He described Mgxada’s family as very peaceful.

“I am 72 and I have never witnessed something like this.”

AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo’s trusted right-hand man and traditional leader in Tantseka, Nkosi Thanduxolo Mtirara, said the royals were shocked at what had befallen Mgxada’s family.

The incident had left them distraught and deeply saddened.

“We don’t know what the motive is. We are not accustomed to these things.

“We often hear about them in other areas like Bityi and Mqhekezweni.”

Daily Dispatch