Police found at least 130 spent AK-47 cartridges at the Soweto tavern crime scene where patrons were gunned down in July. File picture: Siphiwe Sibeko
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 on Monday morning.
Sixteen 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 September 22, 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 added that 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 the 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, the 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 the 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 (assailants) that were identified there,” 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.”