Taxi violence in Windmill Park claims five lives
Five people have been killed and two more have been injured after gunmen opened fire on taxi owners and passengers in Windmill Park, this morning.
According to PRO for the Reiger Park Taxi Association, Mike Sultan, the gunmen apparently driving in three vehicles arrived at the taxi rank at about 7am and opened fire on passengers and taxi owners.
According to SAPS Provincial spokesperson Lieut Col Lungelo Dlamini, this was a taxi-related conflict between the taxi associations of Reiger Park and Vosloorus.
“We believe that, of the five deceased, three were taxi owners, while the others were commuters caught in the crossfire,” he says.
“We have deployed members around Windmill Park to make sure there is no further violence and we have also deployed a team of detectives to investigate this case.”
Three people were declared dead on the scene, while two died on their way to Natalspruit Hospital. The other two are still in hospital, fighting for their lives.
According to William Ntladi, spokesman for the Ekhuruleni Emergency Services, they received a call on Thursday morning about a gunshot in Windmill Park.
One commuter who died on the way to hospital was apparently bumped by a taxi when one of the drivers tried to escape from the scene.
It appears during the ensuing chaos of random shooting, he lost control of the vehicle. The driver then veered off the road on to the pavement and bumped a woman waiting for a taxi.
According to Nladi, the taxi driver did not stop after hitting the woman.
The police are still investigating.
* During May this year, Reiger Park Taxi Association chairperson’s Andy Khoza was gunned down in what appeared to be taxi related violence.
The violence at the time centered around the Reiger Park and Vosloorus taxi associations that have been fighting for rights to the Holomisa-to-Boksburg route.
The Johannesburg High Court ruled that the route belongs to the Reiger Park Association, but the Vosloorus Association is challenging this ruling.
In another incident, on October 2, gunfire erupted outside the busy Boksburg Taxi Rank, located at the corner of Trichardts Road and Leeuwpoort Street, Boksburg CBD, in what also appeared to be related to a dispute over taxi routes.
Gunmen in what appears to be four kombis and a car, allegedly opened fire on the people at the taxi rank this morning.
According to the police two rounds were fired in the incident. Police responded soon after the report about a shooting in progress.
The shooters sped off when the police arrived, driving towards the Boksburg prison, prompting a police pursuit.
The high speed pursuit ended in a multi-vehicle accident crash that injured a driver of VW Polo and one of the accused shooters.
