There has been an increase in contract killings or ‘hits’ in South Africa, with the highest number of incidents occurring in KwaZulu-Natal, as reported by the Citizen website today (March 22).
The province is followed by Gauteng (24%) and the Western Cape (14%), with firearms being the main choice of weapon (83%).
This is according to a report entitled ‘The Rule of the Gun – Hits and Assassinations in South Africa, January 2000 to December 2017’ by the Assassination Witness project, the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Criminology and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime (GITOC).
Read original story: Contract killers thrive in taxi industry
“The study found that a large proportion of assassinations in South Africa are contracted for political, economic or social gain, and that commissioned killings also targeted professionals in the country’s criminal justice system,” the report states.
Fingers are pointed at the violent taxi industry in the country for nurturing and “feeding this criminal market” by providing “a recruitment pool where hit-men can be hired”.
Ladysmith has contributed towards this high percentage, with numerous killings in our area over the years.
Taxi hit-man Themba Raphael ‘Kinati’ Mvelase was handed a hefty prison sentence of 176 years on February 23, 2017, in the Durban High Court.
Mvelase was found guilty in the Ramsgate High Court for ambush killings that came to be known as the ‘October 11 Massacre’, in which 15 people died in one afternoon.
In a separate incident which occurred on April 14, 2015, four people seated in a silver-grey VW Polo were ambushed in Ezakheni C-section.
The close grouping of shots and the staggering number of bullets fired at the car meant they had no chance of surviving a clearly planned and deadly ambush…
On July 18, 2016, former ANC Ward 20 candidate Khanyisile Ngobese-Sibisi was travelling in an ANC election-marked Mercedes-Benz when a gunman opened fire, fatally wounding her in the chest and both arms.
In another incident, a senior official of the Klipriver Taxi Association, deputy chairperson Mr Ngobese, was killed on October 31, 2017, outside Ladysmith.
Also killed in the ambush were 10 other people.
Mr Ngobese, a no-nonsense taxi boss of the old school, was travelling in a Nissan bakkie on the Matiwaneskop road with four other occupants (believed to be his bodyguards), when men in two vehicles allegedly fired shots at them with assault rifles.
Sadly, Ladysmith and its surrounds is known for ambush killings.
However, there have not been any killings recently and the war seems to have quietened down.
