Three men suspected of being hitmen were arrested in Sydenham, Durban, on Saturday.
The arrests came after community members provided a tip-off to police about a possible hijacked vehicle that was spotted at a lodge on Quarry Road West in Sydenham.
Police found two vehicles at the lodge.
“One of them was reported hijacked in Sydenham a fortnight ago, whilst the other was hijacked in Newlands recently,” said police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda.
Suspects found with guns and ammunition
The three suspects, aged 19, 23, and 56, were found in one of the lodge’s rooms with four firearms, nine fully loaded magazines, eight bullet resistant vests as well as an empty rifle bag.
Netshiunda said the men claimed to be from Delft in Cape Town. Police suspect they were in KwaZulu-Natal to carry out a hit.
“With Sydenham known for persistent drug turf wars, police believe that the suspects, who booked into the lodge from 6 December and were to check out on Monday, 11 December 2023, could have been in the area to execute a hit.”
Police said investigations into what the suspects were doing in Sydenham are underway.
Crime stats
Both the Delft and Durban Central were in the top five police stations that recorded the most contact crimes including murder, sexual offences, and common assaults. That is according to the second quarter crime statistics released by police in November.
The others areas in the top five are Nyanga and Mfuleni, both in the Western Cape, and Johannesburg Central.
Though the crime stats showed a slight decrease in the number of murders, there was an increase in attempted murder.
Business of killing
A report written by Rumbidzai Matamba of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) in April 2023 details the prevalence of contract murders in South Africa. Titled The Business of Killing: assassinations in South Africa, the report states that targeted killings can usually be grouped into four categories:
- Taxi industry-related killings;
- Organized crime-related killings;
- Political killings; and
- Personal killings.
Matamba’s report said targeted killings in South Africa are the result of “the proliferation of illegal firearms and the recruitment pools of hitmen being created in the largely unregulated taxi industries of KZN, the Eastern Cape, and the Western Cape, and in Western Cape gangs”.
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