South Africa: Seven Family Members Murdered While Mourning Slain Relative

Seven family members mourning the death of a relative were gunned down by men who stormed their Tantseka village home in the early hours of Thursday. 

According to reports, armed individuals attacked the relatives and demanded R50,000 from them, which had been given to the family by a burial society.

Six family members - Phumzile Mgxada, 30, Nokulunga Mgxada, 42, Nkosikhona Mgxada, 29, Gcobani Mgxada, 29, Nomasango Mkangeli, 79 and Notawuzile Fukuzana, 68 - died at their home, while a seventh victim, yet to be identified, died on the way to a hospital in Mthatha.

The attack took place as the group met at their ancestral home in Bityi's Sithebe Administrative Area to pay respects to their 62-year-old relative Novotile Mgxada, who had been shot dead the previous week.

Due to the massacre, Mgxada's burial was supposed to take place on Saturday but has been postponed.

Three armed men attacked the house, according to an internal police report seen by News24, and demanded the cash a burial society had given the family.

Mlamli Mgxada, the family's spokesperson and Novotile Mgxada's husband, told journalists that he had no idea why the family had been targeted again following the murder of his wife.

"Last week they came and demanded to see me but my wife refused to tell them where I was hiding. They shot her dead.

"They also shot my grandson, but he survived after he was treated in the hospital," he said. 

While the police report revealed that Mgxada was involved in a group fighting stock theft in the area, and which is currently embroiled in infighting, Mgxada said he did not believe that the deadly attacks were linked to this.

Major-General Thandiswa Kupiso, the acting Eastern Cape police commissioner, expressed her horror at the occurrence and gave the order for all pertinent policing units to be deployed to the investigation.

Seven murder cases have been started, according to Kupiso, and the provincial Organized Crime Unit is looking into them.

Anyone with information that could result in the arrest of the perpetrators is being urged by the police to call Colonel Mtshiyo, the investigating officer.