MONDAY, 11.20AM
TWO more Richmond men were killed on Sunday night, both of them supporters of the rival United Democratic Movement aligned to local warlord Sifiso Nkabinde. The men were murdered in the Magoda area, an Nkabinde stronghold, in what appears to have been a revenge attack following the previous night’s murder of six ANC supporters (see below).
Nkabinde is currently an awaiting trial prisoner, facing 18 charges of murder. His arrest brought a two week lull in hostilities in the area, which has now ended.
Richmond mayor Andrew Ragavaloo this morning urged residents not to plan further revenge attacks, and has called on Eskom to provide street lighting to make it more difficult for killers to melt away in the dark.
MONDAY, 8.30AM
GUNMEN shot dead six youths in the KwaZulu Natal town of Richmond, each one killed separately in co-ordinated attacks in two neighbourhoods about a kilometre apart. All six of the victims are ANC members.
Witnesses said the first victim, Samuel Sithole, was gunned down by men armed with automatic rifles while he walked down a road at about 9.00pm. Minutes, later, gunmen burst into a nearby house and fired a volley of bullets at Thulani Mholongo, who was sitting on the bed with his girlfriend. His girlfriend was left unharmed. Within second, two other men who lived close by were also killed in the same way. Several other youths fled or hid away.
Police who have been reinforced with 500 men in the area, moved to the scene of the killings, but failed to find the gunmen. While they were at the scene of the first killings, the second series of attacks began a kilometre away. Police only found the bodies the next day.
ANC leaders in Richmond have attacked the police for their failure to prevent the attacks despite their large numbers, and said that an alert should have been sounded the moment the first shots rang out.
Richmond, which has been the scene of repeated violence for much of the year, had finally seemed to be returning to normal. Only last week, an investigative team from Pretoria returned home, saying that the “most important work” had been done.