A three-year-old was among the 11 people killed in a mass shooting at the Saulsville hostel in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, in the early hours of Saturday.
More than 20 people were shot in the attack, which took place at an illegal shebeen at the hostel.
Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe confirmed that police have registered 11 counts of murder and 14 counts of attempted murder.
Mathe said three of the those killed were minor children, the youngest being three and the others 12 and 16 years of age. The three-year-old was apparently the child of the illegal shebeen’s owner.
“We are told that the three-year-old is actually the child of the owner, quite unfortunate. So there are family members, I think one of the minors is also a brother of to the owner. So quite an unfortunate situation, but we have got full faith and confidence in the team that has been established to get to the bottom of this case and to resolve it and to ultimately find those who are behind the shooting,” Mathe said.
According to the police the incident happened at about 4am.
“Ten people were certified dead on the scene and another died in hospital. So out of that we have 14 victims who are still receiving medical care in hospital,”Mathe said.
The owner of the illegal shebeen was one of those who were still in hospital.
She said police were hunting for three suspects and the motive for the shooting was unknown.
“We are looking for three unknown suspects that allegedly entered the hostel and started randomly shooting while people were drinking,” she said.
She said illegal shebeens were posing a major challenge for police.
“I can tell you that these unlicensed liquor premises are posing a challenge for us because that is where most of these incidents happen, where people are being killed. There’s confrontations, there’s misunderstandings that lead to people fighting and ultimately some losing their lives. When you look at our stats between April and September, we’ve shut down 11,975 of these unlicensed premises,” Mathe said.
A police forensics team is still combing through the active scene where the bodies of the victims have not been collected yet.
Local residents looked on from a distance as police conducted their investigation.
Mathe said the motive for the shooting was still under investigation.
“We are not aware yet what could have been the motive, but our detectives are on the ground. We are piecing together information. We’ve taken several statements. We are also working with the community and several witnesses to tell us what exactly happened and to give us a picture of who we might be looking for,” she said.
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