A bloody weekend in Cape Town, South Africa, saw 16 people murdered in separate incidents, with 10 of them dying in a single mass shooting at a Lwandle shisanyama on Sunday. Bongeka, a woman who had been at the KwaNdelu Shisanyama, left around midnight, less than two hours before the shooting occurred. She had spent the evening celebrating Heritage Day with friends before heading home.
The following morning, Bongeka came across a Facebook post about the mass shooting at KwaNdelu, which immediately made her think of her friends who were still at the establishment. She started panicking and calling them, but they did not answer their phones at first. It was only when she tried them using her work phone that they answered, and she learned that they were fine, except for one with a minor scar.
According to Bongeka, her friends told her that one of the gunmen had stood near the entrance for about 10 minutes before opening fire with an AK-47. The gunman started shooting randomly, which left Bongeka shaken when she thought about what could have happened if she was still at the shisanyama. This was the first time she and her friends had visited KwaNdelu for a Heritage Day celebration.
Another patron, a local DJ known as Asa Nondallz Deejay on Facebook, was inside the establishment when the shooting erupted. She said she was sitting on top of people, praying and saying to God, "Not today," as the gunfire occurred. During the chaos, she lost her phone but later found it with the help of others.
The attack happened at about 1:46 am on Sunday, resulting in five people dying at the scene and another five succumbing to their injuries after being taken to medical facilities. Eleven others were wounded in the shooting. The massacre has shaken the Lwandle community, with residents meeting police on Monday to discuss crime and safety in the area.
Western Cape police commissioner Lt-Gen Sizakhele Dyantyi has established a multidisciplinary team led by serious violent crime detectives to investigate the shooting and hunt down those responsible. Detectives are working to find the perpetrators, but no arrests have been made yet. Police have opened 10 murder and 11 attempted murder cases and are appealing for information that could assist investigators.
KwaNdelu has since apologized to the families of those killed, the injured, its employees, and the wider community. The establishment acknowledged that it had remained active beyond its normal trading hours of 10 pm on the night of the massacre as part of the Heritage Day celebration.
Key points
- A woman narrowly escaped a mass shooting in Lwandle, South Africa, after leaving a shisanyama shortly before gunfire erupted, killing 10 people.
- The massacre has shaken the Lwandle community, with residents meeting police to discuss crime and safety in the area.
- Police have established a multidisciplinary team to investigate the shooting and have appealed for information that could assist investigators.
