Bheki Cele to visit family of five murdered in KZN weekend massacre

Police minister Bheki Cele will on Monday visit the family of five people who were shot dead in an apparent hit outside Durban on Saturday night.

Two of the people killed are understood to be teachers from the Pinetown district. Provincial education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said they had received confirmation from the district that two of the victims were teachers.

“We are waiting for the families of the victims to confirm at which school they had been employed. The department is looking into the matter and will communicate further,” he said.

About 10pm on Saturday night, six people were sitting in their SUV in the KwaNdengezi area outside Durban when three men pulled up in a VW Polo. The men ordered them out of their vehicle and opened fire. Five of the vehicle's occupants were killed and one is in a critical condition in a local hospital.

Police spokesperson Col Thembeka Mbele confirmed the incident to TimesLIVE on Sunday afternoon. “A case of five counts of murder and one of attempted murder have been opened with KwaNdengezi police. They ordered the people to get out of the car and shot them execution-style. Nothing was taken from the victims,” she said.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident, the bodies of four men were also found in the area on Saturday.

Mbele said: “The bodies of four men were discovered on Saturday around 10am. Police were called out to a school sports ground where there were four bodies. They were identified by the community and they are aged between 17 and 40. The four deceased are believed to be stock thieves. They sustained gunshot wounds to the upper body.”

TimesLIVE