Durban - Crime experts have identified organised hits, the proliferation of illegal guns and challenges arising due to poverty and unemployment as being among the possible reasons for the increase in mass murders in KwaZulu-Natal.
The observation follows the mass shooting of 10 family members, including a 13-year-old boy, in the early hours of Friday in Pietermaritzburg.
The police ministry has confirmed that two suspects were arrested over the murders. One of the suspects is in hospital after being injured in a shoot-out with police. A third suspect was killed in the shoot-out while a fourth escaped.
Four people were also shot dead in separate incidents on Thursday in KwaMashu, while another three were gunned down in separate incidents in Durban.
Describing the Pietermaritzburg incident, KZN police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said that in the early hours of Friday, Plessislaer police station were informed of gunshots at Unit 14 in Imbali township.
“When they attended the scene, they found that 10 family members of one family were shot and fatally wounded.”
David Bruce, independent researcher and consultant at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said mass murders in South Africa had escalated considerably in recent years.
“Together with major increases in the murder rate, these killings highlight a significant shift in violent crime, characterised by the rise of firearm use and entrenched organised crime.”
Bruce said the provinces where multiple murders contributed most to the overall murder rate were KZN, Gauteng and the Western Cape.
“The epicentre of the multiple murder phenomenon is KZN. In 2022, almost a third of all these deaths, 798 out of 2 430, were in this province. Police Minister Bheki Cele has said recently, while revealing recent crime statistics, that assassinations were often carried out by hit men from KZN, even when they occurred in other provinces.”
Bruce said some suggestions for addressing these interlinked problems included a specialised firearms unit, or targeted police operations to confiscate illegal guns and ammunition.
“It is generally agreed that responses should include better intelligence gathering and analysis of crime data. Until there’s a clearly defined programme for doing so, the state’s ability to deal with the deteriorating public safety situation is unlikely to improve.”
KZN Violence monitor Mary de Haas said often the mass shootings were linked to gangster activities and were drug-related or taxi-related.
“We have a history of people growing up with violence in this province, with trauma never addressed, and damaging them for life especially if not brought up in a loving caring family. Combined with poverty, that makes these people eminently recruitable to act as hitmen, and paid hitmen are a big industry, usually linked to taxi or shady non-compliant security companies.”
De Haas said the policing crisis should be immediately addressed.
“Crime Intelligence should be picking up the presence of armed hit men in areas and it’s not doing so because it is dysfunctional. There also needs to be urgent attention on the availability of guns and ammunition.
“There should be an immediate audit of guns in police possession (as so many go missing) and security companies’ possession, and of any businesses supplying guns and ammunition.
“Mass shootings suggest the use of rifles/semi-automatic weapons and no one should have these, even in the security industry, apart from police and security companies which are dealing with cash in transit crimes.”
The police ministry said the arrests in the Imbali case occurred after police officers acted on intelligence and information from the community on the possible whereabouts of the suspects.
“A shoot-out ensued when police confronted four men participating in a ‘cleansing ceremony’ conducted by a traditional healer.”