More nabbed over taxi shoot-out
Police have arrested 13 more people in connection with the Durban taxi rank shoot-out.
|||Durban - Police have arrested 13 more people in connection with the shoot-out at a taxi rank in the Durban CBD on Wednesday morning.
The shoot-out erupted after months of tension between the Sonke and Zamokuhle taxi associations, which are contesting the Port Shepstone-Durban taxi route.
Police arrested 11 men initially and by Thursday, 13 more arrests had been made bringing them to a total of 24.
Three people were killed in the gun battle in Brook Street.
Provincial police spokes-man, Colonel Jay Naicker, said the arrested men were from the two taxi associations.
“Some of the arrested suspects might be linked to other crimes in the taxi industry and other places,” he said.
Naicker said they would appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court soon.
Regarding the killing of five men at the KwaMashu hostel, also on Wednesday, Naicker said the provincial task team had made a breakthrough and arrested a 25-year-old man at the hostel on Wednesday night.
“He was found in possession of two unlicensed 9mm pistols with ammunition. Both firearms will be subjected to ballistics tests to determine if they were used in the killings,” he said.
Naicker said the man would be charged with possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition and said the police were investigating if he was involved in the murder of the five killed. He said police were expecting to make more arrests.
Meanwhile the ANC has called for an end to the taxi industry killings and hostel violence in KwaMashu and Glebelands that has seen so many killed.
It called for “frank dialogues” to end the tensions.
ANC provincial secretary, Sihle Zikalala, said the latest killings put the lives of millions who rely on taxis as a mode of transportation at risk.
On the tension in hostels, he said it must be stopped before more lives were lost.
“The ANC calls on the law enforcement agencies to ensure that those who are responsible for this callous crime are brought to book and we are pleased that the senior police officers assigned by the MEC for Community Safety, Willies Mchunu, to investigate these killings are making major arrests,” he said.
He called for communities to assist.
“We call upon the taxi industry and hostel dwellers to engage in honest dialogues to resolve disputes and to stop resorting to solving disputes through the barrel of a gun,” Zikalala said.
Daily News