Finetown shooting: Eyewitness says police ran away during the incident

The community of Finetown, south of Johannesburg, was in shock yesterday after seven people were killed and four more were injured by gunmen who opened fire on them on Saturday.

How the shooting transpired

Four suspects had tried to rob street vendors selling chicken feet in the area. The vendors and community members resisted and threw stones at the suspects, damaging the rear window of the would-be robbers’ vehicle.

“The suspects drove off and came back on foot, armed with firearms. They shot at the vendors and bystanders, said police spokesperson Brenda Muridili.

According to community members, the suspects started to randomly shoot at people on the street. Eyewitness Thebe Batlhalehi said 10 minutes after the incident, a police van drove past, but did nothing to assist them.

“The police just ran away and said they were going to call for backup. If they stopped, we would have shown them which direction those people went so that they can close the area and call a backup for a reason,” said Batlhalehi.

Electricity issues

The community also claimed they had been without electricity for five years. Batlhalehi said had there been electricity in the area, people might have been able to identify the killers.

“The electricity issue began five years back and we have been fighting since then. If we had electricity, people would have been able to identify them because they were a lot of people in the street,” he said.

Survivor’s version of events

One of the survivors said they were sitting in a car when two men carrying guns approached and started shooting at them.

“They just shot at us in the car, they did not rob us or say they wanted something. We were five in the car and they killed two women,” said the survivor.

“If the electricity was working, we would have seen them from afar and run. We would have been able to identify them as well.” He said the only reason he was still living in the area was that he did not have anywhere else to go.

“You only see a police van once a week in this area. Maybe if the police were busy patrolling, people would have not lost their lives.

Affected family members

It cannot be that a person shoots people randomly like that and no one is arrested.” Ntombizane Gcwabe, mother of one of the women killed, said she the perpetrators have robbed her of her child. “I want those people found; maybe something better will come out of them being found.

They need to pay for what they did,” said Gcwabe.

Mmakopano Kose lost two family members in the shooting and said they were breadwinners and left three children behind.

“They shot the owner of the business then his sister rushed to check on him. They shot her as well and they left. Now who will look after the children?”

Community leader Asanda Moyeni alleged seven people were shot at last week, leaving two people dead. She also accused the police of being part of the problem.

Authorities intervention

Police Minister Bheki Cele visited the area yesterday and admitted there were rotten police in the ranks, but that there were others who were doing a good job.

“Ours is to make sure that once we find that police are not doing what they are supposed to do, we deal with them.”

Gauteng provincial commissioner Elias Mawela said the police had put together a team comprising Crime Intelligence, detectives from serious and violent crimes and forensic investigators, who would work around the clock so that those responsible for the shooting would be arrested.

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