Three held for questioning in connection with German tourist's killing released

The three people who were taken in for questioning by police in connection with the murder of a German tourist have been released. 

The office of police minister Bheki Cele said the three could not be linked to the crime. 

“The three people of interest, taken in by Mpumalanga police as part of their investigation have been let go after providing police with quality information that is advancing their investigations,” said police ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Themba. 

Cele had announced the three had been detained on Monday. 

The 67-year-old tourist was shot dead on Monday in what is believed to have been a botched hijacking. He and three other German tourists were travelling on the Numbi Road en route to the Kruger National Park's Numbi Gate when they were attacked.

“As we stand here, we have three people of interest. They are not arrested, they are people of interest,” said Cele.

“We are working to find out how far they [police] have gone with them — so we believe we will be able to crack the case very soon since the police have done the job. They [police] believe they are not far from cracking this case.”

Cele visited the White River area in Mpumalanga on Wednesday with police commissioner Fannie Masemola and Mpumalanga officials.

He said he had been briefed about 11 robbery cases in the area.

“It is a sad situation. It does look like we have a problem here. We have not done very well. Two arrests have been made on those 11 incidents.”

TimesLIVE reported the victim, identified as Joerg Schnarr, had visited SA in 2016 and 2018. 

The tourism ministry said the German tourists arrived in the country on September 20, landing at the Cape Town International Airport. They stayed in Cape Town for four nights and five days, then proceeded to Durban and stayed there for four days and three nights. From Durban, they travelled to the Drakensberg and stayed there for two nights, and then on Monday drove more than 600km to Mpumalanga.

The victim's wife, in a statement to authorities translated from German into English that was shared by the ministry, described the attack.

The couple and two friends were on their way to the Kruger Park when their hired car was barricaded by another vehicle.

“This barricade was very sudden and only 800m from the Numbi gate.”

Her husband had activated the central locking system while driving. He was unlocking it when a shot rang out, she said.

He slumped sideways after being shot.

The armed attackers continued to approach the vehicle.

The driver, who had succumbed to his wounds by that time, according to the statement, still had his foot on the accelerator and this caused the vehicle to reverse at high speed. The vehicle swerved across the road and crashed into a boundary wall, coming to a stop against a water storage tank.

A member of the community arrived to investigate the crash, which caused the attackers to flee.

TimesLIVE

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