Insurance claims, protection fees and gang-related.
These are the three motives that police have attributed to the several shooting incidents that have taken place in Nelson Mandela Bay over the past two months.
In just more than six weeks, almost 20 people had been shot dead in separate incidents across the metro, with most of these incidents taking place in KwaNobuhle.
After the shooting and killing of Arcadia security official, Christopher George (22), in September, while escorting a bread truck in Gqabi Street, KwaNobuhle, residents were rocked by another shooting when eight people were killed.
On October 13, the 72-hour activation plan to track, trace and arrest the murderers was implemented following the shooting of the first four of the eight victims.
The bodies of four men with gunshot wounds to their upper bodies were found inside a Mazda 323 vehicle in Mabi Street, just before noon.
An injured man, also with multiple gunshot wounds, was found alive on the ground behind the vehicle and taken to hospital.
Another man, lying a few metres away from the car, had already died when police arrived at the scene.
Only a few minutes later, the bodies of three men were discovered in Zola Nqini Street.
Two were found inside a silver VW Polo, while the third victim was lying outside the vehicle.
All of them had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
ICYMI | Five suspects arrested for killing of nine people in Kwanobuhle
In a separate incident, on November 1, a teenager was wounded in her back and another woman shot in her buttocks when two masked men started firing shots at the e-hailing taxi that they were in.
The 14-year-old girl and 31-year-old woman managed to get out of the Mazda 323 and run away but the driver and another passenger, both 24-year-old men, were killed in the hail of bullets.
They had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
The next day two men were also shot and killed outside a tavern in Jakavula Street, KwaZakhele, when a group of people started shooting at a VW Polo. One victim was found with half his body inside the car, while the other was lying a few metres away in the street.
Two people were also wounded during this incident.
Only a few days later, on November 5, the metro was rocked by another shooting when six people were killed while one of them was holding a toddler, this time in Ramba Street, New Brighton.
According to police reports, members of the community heard gunshots during the early hours of the morning and when they went to check on one of the houses in the street hours later, they found the door open.
Upon further investigation, the bodies of three men and a woman were lying in the lounge. A woman’s body was in the kitchen and another in the bedroom.
The victim lying in the bedroom had a 3-year-old child with her. The child was unharmed.
Some of the victims were shot and stabbed while others were only shot. It is alleged that the house, which was partially ransacked, is a drug post.
Referring specifically to the incidents in KwaNobuhle, police spokesperson, Col. Priscilla Naidu, said that the motives for these murders are suspected to be insurance claims taken out by the suspects on the victims while some are gang-related and others related to protection fees.
“These killings are well planned and do not occur in areas where there are CCTV or LPR cameras. These murders are a major concern for police. One murder is one too many and our detectives from the Provincial Organised Crime Investigation Unit are working around the clock to trace and arrest those responsible for these callous killings,” Naidu said.
She added that another worrying factor is that although the communities have information, they do not want to come forward because they fear for their own lives and this makes investigations difficult.
“There is a moral decay in our society – there is no respect for human life and when there are no arrests, there is no deterrence.
“We will be intensifying our operations in the hotspot murder areas starting immediately and beyond the festive season. These operations will be led by the District Commissioner’s office and senior management in the identified hotspot areas,” she added.
The hotspot areas for the murders have been identified as KwaNobuhle, KwaZakhele and New Brighton.
