Ethekwini mayor Kaunda attends mass funeral of six people gunned down

Ethekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda alongside KwaZulu-Natal transport and community safety MEC Bheki Ntuli have attended the funeral of six people who were gunned down in what was described as an ambush last week, in Hammarsdale Mpumalanga on Wednesday.

Brigadier Jay Naicker confirmed to The Citizen that five of the victims were from the same family.

Nine members of a family were at their homestead in the Mpumalanga area near Hammarsdale, just outside Durban when a series of gunshots were heard from the door and window. Five members and a neighbour were subsequently fatally wounded, Naicker said.

A three-year-old child was also rushed to a nearby hospital, after sustaining a gunshot wound to the leg.

The remaining three members of the family were not wounded.

Naicker said a number of shotgun and 9mm rounds were found at the crime scene, and that Mpumalanga police are still conducting investigations to establish the possible motive behind the killings.

Mayor Kaunda was accompanied by KZN member of the Provincial Legislature James Nxumalo and former deputy speaker in the KZN legislature Meshack Radebe.

(Compiled by Gopolang Moloko, background reporting by Makhosandile Zulu)

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