Commuters were moving around the rank as usual when mayhem broke out just after 16:00. Two unknown men had walked up to the desk in the information kiosk where 57-year-old Mr Tsusi Pitso, a taxi owner and member of CALLTA (the Carletonville Local and Long Distance Taxi Association), was sitting. Carletonville police’s communication officer, WO Peter Masooa, says the pair opened fire with an AK47 rifle and a 9 mm pistol.
They killed Pitso in his chair before he had a chance to escape. Another man, Mr Thubani Mini Dladla (24), who had been at the back of the kiosk, was also shot and killed. Dladla hails from the East Rand. Three commuters were hit during the attack. An Mponeng man was hit in the right leg and a Khutsong woman was shot in the buttocks. A Carletonville woman was hit on the side of her back. Luckily, she only sustained a flesh wound.
The Gauteng provincial emergency services transported the three wounded residents to Carletonville Hospital. The intensity of the attack was evident when the police later re- covered 11 empty AK47 bullet cartridges and four 9 mm pistol shells at the scene. The police believe the case is linked to tension in the taxi industry. The police’s specialised taxi violence unit in Gauteng is now investigating the incident. A resident of Khutsong was one of the many regular commuters at the rank. She had passed through the taxi rank on her way from Johannesburg just after the attack. She told the Herald she was shocked at what had happened.
“It was very bad. He (Dladla) was lying there under that silver foil. And the other one (Pitso) was sitting on his chair, dead,” she recalled. Around October last year, people inside the taxi industry had already told the Herald that tensions were building between the major local taxi associations. The issue is related to the fact that people are now staying in areas around Khutsong Extension 5 and Welverdiend that were previously uninhabited. This affects the taxi routes.
