|
shy
Crypt Keeper
 
Australia
2014 Posts |
 Posted - 16 March 2006 : 10:48:54 AM
|
Involvement in witchcraft could be behind the armed attack on the Mbatha family in Mahlabatini over the weekend in which five people were shot dead and seven others seriously wounded, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Thursday.
Captain Vishnu Naidoo said police believed the motive for the attack was related to witchcraft. "One of the women had apparently been accused of performing witchcraft in the area and she has been attacked twice this year," Naidoo said.
Ester Mbatha, a 50-year-old mother and grandmother, has survived three attacks. She was attacked twice this year, the last incident barely two weeks prior to the fatal attack on Tuesday which left four members of her family dead and six others seriously wounded.
Ester Mbatha, accused of witchcraft, has survived three attacks
A girlfriend of one of her sons was killed and a friend of the family was also wounded in the attack.
Ester Mbatha returned home from hospital on Monday following the second attack on her at the house two weeks ago.
On Tuesday night five people, including three children, were shot dead, when gunmen opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles on 11 people gathered in the kitchen of the Mbatha home in the Mnongweni area.
An 18-year-old was shot and wounded while standing outside.
Four members of the Mbatha family were killed: Thulengani Mbatha, 25, Nokwazi Mbatha, 10, Mthobi Mbatha, 7, and Mabi Mbatha, 12.
Four members of her family are dead and six others wounded
A girlfriend, Nellie Mtshali, 20, was also killed.
Thulengani Mbatha's two young children, three-year-old Zwe and two-year-old Thethelo, were seriously wounded.
They were transferred to a hospital in Empangeni on Wednesday because of the seriousness of the injuries.
Senzo Mbatha, 18, Hlengiwe Mbatha, 18, Zakhe Mbatha, 20, and a friend, Patsu Mthetwa, 15, were also wounded in the attack.
Police area commissioner Vuka Dube said there had been a number of attacks related to witchcraft in the Mahlabatini/Nongoma area before, but usually only the person accused of witchcraft was killed.
"Never before has there been an attack on a whole family."
Dube said he suspected Ester Mbatha had been the target for the attack, but that the gunmen had simply opened fire on the group of people in the small enclosure to make sure they killed her.
Investigations by the Ulundi murder and robbery unit are continuing. There have been no arrests yet. - Sapa
|
|
Witchcraft Link to Mbatha Family Massacre
