KZN police plead for calm at Glebelands hostel after murder of woman

KwaZulu-Natal acting provincial commissioner Major-General Bheki Langa on Thursday called for peace following yet another killing at Umlazi’s notorious Glebelands Hostel.

A woman was shot and killed on Thursday night, just hours after a parliamentary oversight committee on policing visited the Umlazi police station to discuss violence at the strife-torn complex that is home to about 22 000 residents.

The latest victim, a 30-year-old woman, was inside her residential block in the Glebelands Hostel when she was gunned down by an unknown assailant. The killer manged to flee the scene without being observed.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said it was too early to speculate on a possible motive, but that detectives were pursuing certain leads.

Langa said: “Our 24-hour deployment of police officers in the hostel complex will remain and we will continue with proactive operations to bring peace to the area and arrest those involved in any criminal activities.

“We are once again appealing to hostel residents to work with these police officers to rid the hostel of criminal elements. A number of arrests have been made by police deployed at the hostel for crimes such as murder, attempted murder and possession of unlicensed firearms, however, we are concerned that witnesses in other cases are not prepared to co-operate with our investigating officers, allowing these killers to roam freely.”

In late July, a man and woman were shot and killed on the same night at the notorious complex. Five days later, three men were shot and wounded.