Pretoria – Two people, who were arrested last week in connection with the July mass shooting at Mdlalose Tavern in Nomzamo Park, Orlando East in Soweto, are scheduled to appear in court this morning.
At least 16 people lost their lives as a result of the shooting.
“The police in Gauteng can confirm that two suspects that have been linked to the July 2022 Nomzamo shooting incident have been arrested.
On 22 September 2022, national crime intelligence officers arrested one suspect who was then linked to the Nomzamo shooting incident in Johannesburg,” police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili said on Friday.
She said the suspect was handed over to Gauteng’s murder and robbery investigating team for further handling.
The suspect then led the team to one of his accomplices, who was arrested in Northern Cape on Friday.
“The team proceeded to arrest two more suspects, linked to a murder case for an incident that occurred in Kliptown in October 2021, where a Lesotho musician was killed,” said Muridili.
The fourth suspect was apprehended on a warrant of arrest for a double murder incident that occurred in Doornkop in 2021, where two Basotho nationals were killed.
Meanwhile, provincial commissioner of police in Gauteng, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela, has commended the officers involved for the “breakthrough” on the case.
Investigations are continuing, and police said more arrests are expected.
In July, Police Minister Bheki Cele said crime scene experts had recovered at least 130 used bullet casings of AK-47 assault rifles after the Soweto tavern shooting.
“There were about 130 empty cartridges of AK-47, which means that those people that were there really meant business of killing. In an AK-47, at any given time, you put 30 bullets in it, which means time and again, they would reload. There is suspicion that there were about three of those rifles among those five people that were identified there (assailants),” Cele said at the time.
“But also, there were cartridges of pistols, the small guns. So, the group of people, for whatever reason, they intended to come here and do the damage that they did.”
The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova, is rated as the most widely used shoulder weapon across the world. It was developed in the then Soviet Union by Russian commander, Senior Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov and is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov family of rifles. It is a fully automatic assault weapon, meaning as long as the trigger is depressed and it has bullets, it will fire non-stop.
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