On Saturday morning six family members of the Mkhize family were brutally shot and killed by five gunmen masquerading as the police in Muden, near Greytown in KZN. Five of the victims were brothers and the sixth one was a relative. The killers only shot male members of the family, including two children aged three and four and a 17-year old teenager. Fortunately, the children and the teenager were only wounded and did not die. They were rushed to hospital. At the time of this writing, the four-year old had been released from hospital and the other two were still being treated.
According to reports, the killers arrived around 3 am and entered every house (the homestead has nine houses), shooting every male they found. They allegedly shot them from the back of their heads in an execution style. Twelve people were left behind, including a 90-year old granny. The motive of the killings was unknown until yesterday.
Yesterday news surfaced that the victims were suspected of stock theft, which is said to be rampant in the Muden and Pomeroy areas. A day before the shootings, a community meeting had been held to discuss possible ways of curbing stock theft in Muden.
The Times Live reported that at night the police have been conducting raids in the area in an attempt to catch the culprits red-handed. Two weeks ago they raided the Mkhize family and confiscated an unregistered gun. However, after Saturday’s killings, community members voiced their concerns about these raids, saying the police should come during the day because at night it is hard to tell whether it is really them or thugs.
It has been reported that provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Mammunye Ngobeni assembled a special task team to hunt down the culprits and according to recent developments, arrests are said to be imminent.
