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Taxi owner among those injured in oThongathi shooting

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A taxi owner is among those injured during two separate drive by shooting incidents in the oThongathi area north of Durban. During the incidents, five people were shot and killed while two other people sustained gunshot injuries during the attacks. In the first incident two people were shot dead when an unknown vehicle opened fire on a vehicle that was crossing a set of robots.

In the second incident, just a few kilometres apart, three people believed to be security guards of the taxi owner were shot and killed.

oThongathi Community Emergency Response Team spokesperson, Nazir Sadack explains:

“From what we understand the vehicle drove through the robot and he drove through where there was a vehicle that came alongside and started opening fire on them. Sadly, two occupants of the vehicle were pronounced deceased by emergency services. The third occupant, which is the female, has been injured and taken to the hospital. From what we understand there is strong possibility that they are related. But that is still to be confirmed at this stage. Yes, it is very possible that it is taxi related because on the second scene one of the injured is a taxi boss from the oThongathi area.”

Five people shot and killed in oThongathi:

The latest incident follows similar shooting incident on Tuesday, where two taxi operators were shot dead at Berea in Durban, while their three family were also killed at Springfield, on the same day. Police in KwaZulu-Natal have denied that they are failing to curb taxi related crime.

Police spokesperson in the province, Robert Netshiunda, has urged people, who might have information about the two shooting incidents, to contact the police.

“When incidents of this nature happen, it normal for people to think that police are not doing anything. But just few days ago we arrested five hit men with firearms who were about to kill a person, that is progress. We also found firearms hidden in a school, that is progress. In a space of a week we recovered 89 firearms, we found over 1400 ammunition. We understand that we can do more, but our intelligent are on the ground and they are doing a lot. But as police we can’t be on every street corner or in every household. But these hit are planned somewhere, and somebody knows something. We need that piece of information.”

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