Gunmen storm home near Pietermaritzburg, leaving one brother dead and another injured

A family in Imbali Unit BB is living in fear after five gunmen wearing balaclavas stormed their home, killing a man and critically injuring his brother on Monday night, reportsThe Witness. According to the family, two vehicles arrived outside the Goqo home in Imbali, around 21:00 on Monday night. The armed men forced the brothers’ parents into a room and seized their cellphones before targeting their sons, Nkazimulo and Kwanda.

“They called my sons by name but never said what they wanted,” said the victims’ father, Mzikayifani Goqo. “Inside the sitting room, the gunmen found Kwanda and ordered him to strip off his clothes at gunpoint,” he added. Goqo added that when Nkazimulo heard the attackers demand to know his whereabouts, he ran and hid under a taxi parked in the yard.

“They fired shots under the taxi. They then dragged him out and shot him multiple times and made sure that he was dead. We recovered nine spent cartridges at the scene,” he said.The father added that Kwanda was then taken by the gunmen and was found shot and left in a nearby manhole.

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He was rushed to a local clinic to get medical treatment. Nkazimulo, who died at the scene, owned two tuckshops in Imbali Unit 14. His brother, a nursing graduate, was still seeking employment.

“This is not the first attack on our family. In November 2024, gunmen fired shots at our house and my elder son was injured on his hand, but nobody died,” Goqo said.“All that we want is justice. We are left with questions about what our sons did to them.

If they did something wrong, it could have been sorted out instead of losing our children.” he said. “We are living in fear and do not feel safe,” he added. uMgungundlovu District SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Sifiso Gwala said Plessislaer police had opened cases of murder, attempted murder and house robbery.

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