Prosecutors on Wednesday charged a man with murder in South Africa, weeks after the shooting deaths of 18 members of a family plunged the city into chaos.
The shooting, which occurred in a rural village in the Eastern Cape province on September 28, highlighted the rise in mass shootings in South Africa. The country has long recorded high rates of violent crime, but in recent years gunmen have begun targeting pubs, family gatherings and even birthday parties in assassination style.
Police arrested Siphosoxolo Mikete, 45, on Monday at his home eight miles from the village, where people are still stunned by the shooting. He appeared briefly in an Eastern Cape court on Wednesday, where he was charged with 18 counts of murder. Mr Miekete is represented by a legal aid lawyer but has not entered a plea. Prosecutors said he had previous convictions for murder and escaping from legal custody and was on parole at the time of his arrest.
He is scheduled to reappear in court next Tuesday for a bail hearing. Prosecutors say they plan to oppose bail.
Mikete was arrested after police launched an investigation following the shooting. Prosecutors said the motive was unclear and it was unclear whether the defendant had a relationship with the victims. Police said they would continue to search for other people who may have been involved in the attack.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, September 28, at least one gunman targeted two farms in a village on the outskirts of the rural town of Lusikisiki. Members of the same family used to gather there to prepare for traditional ceremonies.
Police said 13 people died at one farm, most of them women, and a 14th person later succumbed to his injuries in hospital. In the other house, all four people in the same house died. A 14-year-old boy was among the dead. Police said six people survived, including a two-month-old infant.
Mikete was also charged with illegal possession of an unlicensed AK-47 assault rifle, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Murder rates have increased in four of South Africa’s nine provinces, largely due to gun violence, according to government crime statistics released in August.
In the past four months, police have seized more than 430 illegal firearms, including automatic weapons, most of them in the Eastern Cape, the police minister said.
