In the latest incident in Carletonville’s taxi war, gunmen armed with AK47’s opened fire on three men outside court where they were to appear on a 2020 case for damaging taxis belonging to a rival association.

According to the Carletonville police, frantic personnel of the Oberholzer Magistrate’s Court called them at about 09:00 on July 28.

“They are shooting at us!” one caller shouted.

Police rushed to the scene to find a man fatally wounded in the backseat of a grey Toyota Corolla Professional. The vehicle was branded with UTAF (United Taxi Association Front) signage.

The organisation is linked to the CALLDTA (Carletonville Local and Long-Distance Taxi Association).

The victim, known as ‘Sekwishi’, was identified as a member of this association and he was declared dead shortly afterwards.

Two other members of the same association were respectively shot in their left upper body and lower body.

A visitor to Carletonville was shot in the buttocks. She had been sitting in her parked Mazda bakkie next to the Corolla at the time of the incident. She was hit when the four unknown attackers peppered the Corolla with bullets from AK47 assault rifles.

The attackers fled the scene before the police arrived.

The Corolla and Nissan bakkie were riddled with bullet holes, and more than 30 empty cartridges were picked up from the scene.

Paramedics from Gauteng Provincial Emergency Medical Services and ER24 attended the scene and took the injured patients to the hospital.

Police confirmed that the three CALLDTA members were supposed to appear court that morning because they were suspects in a case from 2020.

During this incident, which happened in Khutsong Extension 5, the CALLDTA members allegedly damaged taxis belonging to their rival association, Cuta (the Carletonville United Taxi Association).

The police’s special taxi violence unit are investigating a murder case and three attempted murder cases following the incident.

Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Noxolo Kweza could not provide information on whether there had been any arrests in any of the past year’s taxi murders in the area.