Police Minister Bheki Cele and national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola are expected to visit the family of Sbonelo Mthembu in Piet Refiet, Mpumalanga to offer their condolences.
The minister’s visit comes after Mthembu, an ANC ward councillor, and two other men were gunned down by three unknown assailants on Friday night.
Lirandzu Themba, spokesperson for Cele’s department, said the minister will be briefed on the crime patterns in the area, as well as interventions put in place to deal with violent crime and other contact crimes.
“The visit to the Piet Retief policing area will also include a comfort visit to the family home of the slain councillor,” said Themba.
According to police spokesperson in Mpumalanga, Colonel Donald Mdhluli, the three deceased were shot and killed at a certain yard in Mkhondo.
“The councillor, as well as his mechanic, were dropped off by a friend who was driving a bakkie when suddenly three armed men appeared in the yard,” Mdhluli said at the weekend.
“The suspects reportedly fired multiple shots at the councillor who was in the yard, and also fatally shot the friend who was still inside his bakkie.”
The mechanic was also gunned down before the suspects fled the scene.
“When police and medical practitioners arrived at the scene, they found a male victim lying motionless behind a steering wheel of a white bakkie with a gunshot wound. The paramedics certified him dead at the scene,” Mdhluli said.
“The police at Piet Retief, as well as the paramedics, were informed about the incident while the councillor and his mechanic were taken to a nearby hospital. The mechanic was unfortunately certified dead on arrival while the councillor succumbed to his injuries moments later.”
A case of three counts of murder was opened and the hunt for the suspects is under way.
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