In two separate incidents, just few minutes apart, four Somali shopkeepers were shot on Friday 3 June in Nomzamo, two of them dead.
The other two were taken to hospital. The men were attacked in their shops on the corner of Michael and Lonja streets.
The incidents occurred around 20:00, when gunmen pounced on Discount Supermarket and then proceeded to Ndaba Zabantu. The two stores are a stone’s throw from each other.
When City Vision visited the area on Monday afternoon it was business as usual.
But at Ndaba Zabantu shopkeeper Hassan Ahmed was trying to cope with what had transpired.
“I was at the back of the shop, and all I heard was a number of shots ringing out,” he related. “It was madness; I didn’t count the number of shots, nor did I see the culprits.”
Ahmed said a 17-year-old boy was hit by six bullets.
“It may have been around 19:45 when the shooting started. They killed our co-worker and injured this other boy,” he said, clearly distraught.
Having worked at the shop for four years, this is by far the worst experience for him, and he was still reeling in shock.
Meanwhile, at Discount Supermarket in Michael Street, customers were coming in and out.
A visibly shaken shopkeeper referred City Vision to the owner, Hussein Abdi, who was not at the shop but recovering in hospital following the attack.
Narrating the story from his hospital bed, he said: “I saw two guys, I don’t know them. They just drove past in their car and shot, killing my brother,” he said.
“When I went out they shot me in the left leg and right arm.”
He told City Vision he would go back to his shop, which he has run since 2009 and had no other option.
WO Joseph Swartbooi said Lwandle police attended a crime scene on Friday 3 June around 20:50.
“On their arrival they found the bodies of two males aged 38 and 32, who had sustained gunshot wounds,” he said. “The victims were declared deceased on the scene by medical personnel.”
Swartbooi said the two other males, aged 33 and 39, who had also sustained gunshot wounds were transported to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.
He said the armed suspects fled the scene in an undisclosed direction, and no arrests had yet been made.
He said Lwandle police were investigating cases of murder and attempted murder.
Anyone with information on the shootings is kindly requested to call Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
