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Just like any other night, Lubabalo Jokazi returned home from work on Friday and ate his supper.
As it was a Friday night, and like most of his peers, 25-year-old Jokazi then told his cousin Amanda Tshangela that he was going to play pool and would be back later.
That was the last time Tshangela saw him, and was later to hear that he had been shot.
Jokazi was one of the 10 people killed by unknown assailants in Marikana informal settlement in Philipi East, Cape Town, on Friday night.
The killings have since sent shockwaves in the community while provincial police have stepped up their visibility in the area to prevent further killings.
Yesterday, Tshangela said of her cousin: “He died on the spot. He was not a bad person and he didn’t have any bad friends.
"I can’t believe up until now that he is dead. We are not safe here, we are moving out.”
Police have called for reinforcement to police the informal settlement for fear that more violence could break as community leaders were meeting in secret locations about the Friday night mass killings.
Earlier yesterday, police were prevented from entering the settlement as residents complained that they have lost faith in the police to protect them.
At the Philipi East police station, community leaders told cops that residents had lost hope in the police and that they were very upset following Friday night’s mass shootings.
Ward 35 councillor Mboniswa Chitha provided a detailed account of the shootings, claiming that the suspects had forced their entry into some homes and in some cases forced parents to perform oral sex in front of their children.
Joseph Makeleni, a community leader in Marikana, said a gang of about 30 men, some dressed neatly, jumped out of the vehicles and split into groups, making their way to different sections of the area around 19:00 on Friday.
Makeleni said the gang shot four revellers at Emaweleni shebeen.
Another four young men were killed in Rholihlahla section. The gang, Makeleni said, proceeded on the shooting spree and fatally wounded a security guard found hitch-hiking on the road.
“There was blood all over the shebeen. One parent was crying uncontrollably. One family member is a twin to a brother shot dead in the shebeen. The twin brother [the one alive] is heartbroken and devastated,” said Makeleni.
Western Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa confirmed that a 10th person who was injured during the attacks died in hospital later.
Police were yesterday executing search operations, while further units – including the tactical response team – were being called to come and assist.
