Six people were shot and killed in Khayelitsha on Sunday night.
CAPE TOWN – A Khayelitsha resident who heard the gunshots that went off on Sunday night described them as sounding like falling rain.
Six people were shot and killed when unknown gunmen fired more than 60 shots on the corner of Maphongwana and Indada streets in Site C.
“It was raining bullets,” said the resident. “There were so many, I lost count. I never heard so many bullets in my life being fired. I could not tell if it was automatic weapons or not.”
The police said they were called out to the scene after 8pm on Sunday. There, they found the bodies of five victims who had been shot. A sixth person, who had been taken to hospital, was certified dead on arrival.
More than a dozen people have been murdered in a spate of mass killings in Khayelitsha over the past few weeks.
Councillor Khayelethu Khama was at the scene following the latest shooting.
He said police told him that more than 60 bullet cartridges were found.
“Everyone is shocked,” he said. “No one knows what led to this massacre. This happened on the street; people were walking from the shops and my personal assistant’s brother is one of the deceased.”
Khama said another person was stabbed to death close to where the shooting happened.
The last time Site C had a similar mass shooting was in September 2020 when six people were shot dead and four wounded in Solomon Tshuku Road.
“We do experience crime but not to this extent,” said the councillor.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said organised crime detectives had opened murder dockets for investigation into the latest shooting.
“Organised crime detectives are hard at work busy with an investigation which was initiated immediately. Details of the deceased persons are currently being determined.”
