Zimbabweans believed dead in Johannesburg bloodbath

By Tichaona Sibanda
26 June 2006

Four South African policemen and eight suspected robbers, some of them believed to be Zimbabweans, died in a bloody gun-battle in Johannesburg on Sunday.

Gauteng provincial commissioner, Perumal Naidoo told reporters that ‘four policemen had lost their lives in the line of duty’ while paramedics at the scene of the shooting, a house in Jeppestown east of the city centre, described it as a ‘bloodbath’.

Thuso Khumalo, a Zimbabwean journalist based in Johannesburg said the five hour-gun battle was like a scene from a Hollywood war movie.

‘Hollywood visited Johannesburg on Sunday’ was all Khumalo could say about the deadly shoot-out that claimed the lives of 12 people. The Daily Sun, a tabloid aimed at the black working class, reported in its Monday edition that most of those arrested and killed were Zimbabwean immigrants based in South Africa.

But Khumalo was quick to say it was pure speculation by the tabloid paper as police were still investigating the identities of those involved. 14 members of the criminal gang were arrested after surrendering to a team of police task force members who had cordoned off the house.

According to Khumalo, an officer at the scene told journalists police had followed the gang from a supermarket they had held up in Honeydew, northern Johannesburg, to the house on Main Street, Jeppestown, at about 10am. Police suspected the gang used the house as a hideout.

‘When officers entered the house to arrest the gang a major shoot-out ensured. The gang fired at the police with automatic weapons. By the time the shooting died down 12 people, four of them policemen, had been killed. Several others were injured,’ Khumalo said.

According to media reports from South Africa, at 9am about 20 suspects hit the Honeydew Pick n Pay supermarket and robbed it of an undisclosed amount. One suspect was arrested at the scene a few minutes after the robbery with the help of the community.

At about 10am police received a tip-off of the robbers’ whereabouts. They immediately headed to the robbers hideout on the corner of Main and Mordaun streets in Jeppestown. On arrival at the house police rushed inside. They were met by gunfire and a policeman was killed. The shootout between the cops and the robbers went on for about two hours.

At about 1pm the shootout ended. Three men and a woman officer had been shot dead. Eight robbers were dead. Negotiations started and the police urged the surviving suspects to hand themselves over. At about 4pm 14 suspects surrendered.

Meanwhile Tinashe Rioga, the 21 year-old Zimbabwean accused of trying to hijack a South African Airways domestic flight from Cape Town on 17 June, briefly appeared before a magistrate court on Monday.

The court, where proceedings were conducted with the aid of a Shona interpreter, was told the case was postponed for a bail application on 5 July and that Rioga would remain in police custody.