Three months after a brutal attack on a Greytown family left seven dead and two injured, three men have been arrested.
|||Durban - Three months after a brutal attack on a Greytown family left seven dead and two injured, the task team responsible for investigating the massacre has made a break- through, arresting three men.
Seven Mkhize family members were shot dead and two survived when a gang of assailants attacked them at their home at Muden in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands early on March 9.
The five Mkhize brothers - Sibusiso, 59, Mngeni, 46, Lungisani, 40, Mhlengi, 38, Simphiwe, 18, a two-year-old girl – and their relative, Sizwe Zuma, 32, were asleep in separate rondavels when five men opened fire on them.
The attackers, weilding AK-47 rifles and handguns, were allegedly masquerading as police officers.
Two males, a four-year-old and a 17-year-old, were injured during the attack.
Police spokesman Col Vincent Mdunge said the National Intervention Unit had conducted operations in the Muden and Greytown area.
Several firearms were seized.
“During one of these operations, a 51-year-old man was arrested for possession of an unlicensed firearm on April 14, and was subsequently released on bail,” Mdunge said.
The firearms seized, including the one found in his possession, were sent for ballistics testing to determine whether they had been used in any crimes.
Mdunge confirmed the ballistics report on the firearm taken from the 51-year-old indicated it had been used in the Mkhize family massacre.
“The task team rearrested the 51-year-old on Monday morning and subsequent police investigations led to the arrest of his two sons in connection with the massacre,” Mdunge said.
The three will be charged with the seven murders and on two counts of attempted murder. They were expected to appear in Greytown Magistrate’s Court this week.
Provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, expressed her gratitude for the steadfast and resolute investigative approach of the task team.
“This breakthrough comes at a time when the public expected a speedy resolution to the inhumane attack on the Mkhize family, yet the community was reluctant to volunteer information to the police,” she said.
The commissioner added that the SAPS’s quest to eradicate the proliferation of illegal firearms in Greytown and surrounding areas was yielding the intended results.
“We are confident that we will make further arrests in this case and we advise those suspects that are outstanding to hand themselves over as it is only a matter of time before we arrest them,” Ngobeni said.
Daily News