Four friends killed as they sat down for supper
“Looking at the scene it didn’t look like there was a conflict or struggle, they were just sitting there and caught by surprise.”
|||Cape Town - Four friends were killed when armed suspects opened fire on them minutes before they were about to sit down for supper.
Aphiwe Siyolo, 21, Asahke Dantile, 16, Yonela Hermanus, 21, and his cousin Gcobane Gubevu, 22, were at a friend’s house in Ndongeni Road, Lower Crossroads, in Philippi on Tuesday evening with three other friends when the gunmen stormed in.
Survivor Noluthando Klassen, 26, pretended to be dead after she was shot four times.
The 26-year-old on Wednesday took to Facebook to tell her friends she knew who their attackers were.
However, police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk says they are yet to make any arrests. He says police arrived to find the four victims lying on the ground in a shack.
“Murder cases were registered for further investigation,” he says.
Yonela’s brother, Mfundo Hermanus, 39, says: “Looking at the scene it didn’t look like there was a conflict or struggle, they were just sitting there and caught by surprise. One of the boys was still slumped over the chair, the other one was on top of the bed, another behind the door. It was a terrible thing to witness.
“As a family we are saddened by this, it is painful to lose a relative in such a brutal way. What was worse is that it was my birthday on Tuesday and we were all planning to celebrate on Saturday, but instead we are planning funerals.”
Aphiwe was also set to celebrate his birthday on Friday.
Asakhe’s mother, Nomalibeko Dantile, 37, says she last saw her teen son alive on Tuesday afternoon.
“I feel heartbroken by this, we don’t know what happened in that house but surely nobody deserves to be killed like that,” she says.
At the scene on Wednesday, relatives were scrubbing blood off the floor, and loaded the bloodstained bed sheets, pillows and rugs into a dustbin to throw away.
Daily Voice