Authorities are confident that arrests will be made soon following Sunday morning’s mass shooting in Carletonville, which left at least 17 people dead and a further 15 hospitalised.
Just hours after the attack, police were already searching for persons of interest believed to also be involved in illegal mining. Senior police officials, including Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Tommy Mthombeni, descended on the scene of the shooting, at a busy tavern that was apparently hosting an event at the time of the attack.
Mthombeni revealed that the faces of eight shooters had been captured on CCTV and urged residents to help identify them. He also revealed that the suspected killer of a woman in Tembisa on Saturday night was arrested as a result of assistance from the community.
“I must indicate that [in] that case in Tembisa for the murder, we were assisted by the community. Our Crime Intelligence [officials] were on the ground. They got that information, they followed [it], and even here we are convinced that we will be in a position to follow it up. We are already having the leads, so it is important to reflect on that,” said Mthombeni.
“Robbery appears to have been the motive because, if you look at the people who were rounded up from outside and even inside, cellphones were being taken, cooler boxes were taken, wallets and personal belongings, which shows an intention to rob. But we are also not ruling out an illegal mining turf war because one of the deceased was involved in that. In fact, we have been looking for him in connection with a previous shooting, and this might have been a counter-attack,” said Mthombeni.
Residents said they were left traumatised by the incident and called on police to find the perpetrators.
“I just went on the floor, I fell and froze. Some were running and screaming, stepping on top of me as they tried to flee. That was the last time I saw my friend alive,” said a survivor.
Another survivor told Newsnote that the attackers arrived in a minibus and appeared to be prepared for the attack.
“At some stage, we thought they wanted to steal the Mercedes-Benz parked here, but they torched it along with this small car. You could see that they wanted to create chaos. My friends and I were the first to be held up. After taking our belongings, they made us lie down over there, then started shooting their way in. A guy was standing there towards the gate and tried running, but he was shot on the spot. It was bad. One of my friends was shot but survived. A lot of people died,” he said.