Since April 2022, there have been five separate drive-by shootings that claimed the lives of five people, with the most recent incident occurring outside a primary school on Lenny Naidu Drive.
In all five shooting incidents, the modus operandi of the suspects were the same: pull up alongside the victim’s car and shoot, according to police reports and on-scene investigations done by IOL at the time of these shootings.
Thursday’s incident was no different.
A man, who was injured during the shooting, was driving along Lenny Naidu Drive with his security detail. They were in separate vehicles.
The injured man was driving a purple Range Rover and his security were in a white VW Polo.
Police indicated that a white Toyota Fortuner, with an unknown number of gunmen inside, opened fire on the two vehicles, killing one of the security guards in the process and injuring another.
This is the scene on Lenny Naidu drive, opposite Merryhill Primary school, where a drive-by shooting took place around 10:30am on Thursday.
— Jehran Daniel (@JehranD) August 10, 2023
One person was allegedly shot dead and another 2 injured.
Residents said they heard automatic gunfire. @IOL pic.twitter.com/bpIAzkQtBN
“One security guard was certified dead at the scene while the other was rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds. The victim who was presumably the main target of the shooting survived with gunshot injuries and was also taken to hospital,” Colonel Robert Netshuinda said.
Police maintain that they do not know the motive for the shooting.
The two vehicles, Range Rover and Polo, were travelling up Lenny Naidu Drive, in the direction of the Bayview shopping centre.
From an assessment of the scene, it appeared that the Polo took most of the gunfire, as the bonnet and windshield were riddled with bullet holes.
The purple Range Rover had gunshot holes in the passenger side door and three on the windshield.
The shooting took place in broad daylight, outside Merryhill Primary School.
Victims of drive-by shootings so far:
– 37-year-old Bongani Maqashalala was shot dead at the intersection of Unity Street and Lenny Naidu Drive in April 2022.
– 34-year-old Wayne Chetty was shot multiple times while driving his white Toyota Hilux on Thursday, May 12, 2022. He later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
– Former Saps member Seelan Pillay was shot dead on Saturday morning, on October 8, 2022 outside the Bayview shopping complex.
– A Chastworth lawyer, known as Mohamad Zubai Pathon, was shot and killed on Sunday night, April 30, 2023, after 9pm at the Westcliff-off ramp in Chatsworth.
– On Thursday, August 10, 2023, one security detail attached to the victim of the shooting, was killed. The name of the security detail is not known yet.
All five of these shootings took place within a five kilometre radius of one another.
Leaving out Thursday’s incident, IOL asked police what progress had been made on investigations for the other four shootings.
This was their response.
“Investigations are ongoing and investigators are hard at work tracking and tracing suspects. Police are appealing to anyone who might have information about the suspects involved to contact their local police or Crime Stop on 08600 10111.”
IOL