Tavern shootings: Over 130 cartridges found at Soweto scene as Cele dismisses ‘terrorism’ claims

Police Minister Bheki Cele has revealed that investigators found more than 130 empty cartridges at the crime scene of the Soweto tavern shooting.

Cele visited the Mdlalose Tavern in Nomzamo, Orlando East, on Monday, where 15 people were shot dead over the weekend.

The incident took place in the early hours of Sunday, with gunmen shooting up the tavern before fleeing in a Toyota Quantum.

Addressing the media outside the tavern on Monday, Cele said it is believed that five people armed with three AK-47s launched the attack.

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“It was a group of people involved. We will find their motive when we find them. They intended to come here and do the damage they did,” he said.

While the minister indicated that the deceased were from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Eastern Cape, he said an 11-member detective team of the South African Police Service (Saps) was investigating the murders.

In addition, he said members of the Tactical Response Team would be deployed to Nomzamo.

“We are going to deploy TRT members to patrol this area. They will be here from tonight. They won’t be removed from here until they complete their task. Their presence will be felt. We want to saturate all the streets here and take them over,” Cele further said.

‘Bloody weekend’

Cele also confirmed other shootings across the county, with two people being shot dead in Katlehong, while four died in Pietermaritzburg.

Two people in Inanda, and two in Duncan Village, East London, were also shot dead over the weekend.

“It was a bloody weekend. There is a thinking that it was a coordinated event. We don’t have that information. We have separate issues.

“The Pietermaritzburg, Katlehong and Nomzamo killings took place in taverns. We believe they coincided rather than coordinated,” the minister said.

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He further said there was no evidence the weekend attacks at three taverns were coordinated.

“We believe that [the attacks] coincided rather than being coordinated. Do we believe that there is terrorism as it was labelled? We do not believe that it is terrorism.

“It is criminality that is brutal, violent. Terrorism is a high level of criminality [that is] organised, Cele said.

“We would have to have some evidence, as the police, to be able to say so. Otherwise, we would really be speculating in a very serious manner. So we do not believe it is terrorism,” he added.

Meanwhile, police have since arrested two people in connection with the Samkelisiwe tavern shooting in Pietermaritzburg.