Nine people have been killed in separate incidents in Grabouw during October, eight of them in shootings, according to police.

Grabouw police were investigating multiple murder cases following a series of violent incidents across the town in this month.

No arrests had been made yet and the motives behind the killings remained unknown.

According to Sgt Wesley Twigg, media liaison officer for Western Cape police, the first incident occurred on 3 October in Rooidakke, where a man was fatally shot while unloading bread with his assistant.

The men were reportedly approached by unknown suspects who demanded cash. The victim was shot and declared dead at the scene.

On 10 October a 39-year-old man was shot and killed in Khutsong after sustaining gunshot wounds to his chest. On the same day two other men were shot and killed in Letlaila Street.

Police found the victims with gunshot wounds and both were declared dead at the scene. A third victim was transported to a medical facility for treatment.

The violence continued on 11 October, when a 27-year-old man was stabbed to death in the Covid informal settlement.

On the 12th police responded to another shooting in Grabouw.

This time a 54-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound. He was declared dead at the scene.

The following day police registered two counts of murder after the bodies of two men were discovered in an informal dwelling in Khutsong.

Both victims were declared dead at the scene.

The most recent incident detailed in the police statement occurred on 23 October in Molefe Street, where officers found a 28-year-old man in a spaza shop with a gunshot wound to the back of his head.

He was declared dead at the scene. Twigg said the circumstances surrounding the shooting incidents were under investigation and the motives had yet to be established.

“The investigations are ongoing,” he said.

Police have urged anyone with information that could assist the investigations to come forward.

Residents and other small-business owners in the area believe the violence could be linked to extortion. However, the police could not verify whether this was indeed the case.

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