Among the 11 people who were killed in this morning’s (October 31) brutal ambush on the N11 were a taxi boss, Klipriver Taxi Association deputy chairperson, Mr Ngobese and his daughter.
Gunmen were waiting in the bushes as the Nissan bakkie approached the Matiwaneskop intersection on the N11. The shooters riddled the vehicle with bullets. The driver or an occupant of the bakkie, however, had enough control to keep the vehicle on the road for close to 100 metres before colliding at full speed with an oncoming taxi in its lane.
The taxi was filled with teachers en-route to a nearby school. Four of them were killed instantly, with another teacher dying later in hospital. The driver of the taxi was killed outright.
It is believed that the shooters followed close behind the bakkie. They approached on foot and executed any survivors in the bakkie. They, however, at no time attacked the surviving occupants of the taxi.
The ambush was carried out with almost near-perfect military precision, with the occupants of the bakkie having no chance to escape the massacre.
Police from various elite units – including the National Intervention Unit (NIU), Provincial Taxi Task Team, Public Order Policing from Durban and the K9 Unit – have been rapidly deployed in the Ladysmith area.
Original story: Mass shooting on the N11 near Ladysmith – 10 dead
Family of the deceased teachers gathered at the scene in the late afternoon and found it difficult to control their emotions on hearing that their loved ones had died.
A docket of five counts of murder and six counts of culpable homicide was opened at Elangslaagte police station and it will be transferred to the Provincial Taxi Task Team for investigation.
