Woman recounts leaving Lwandle shisanyama shortly before mass shooting
It was a bloody weekend in Cape Town, with 16 people murdered in separate incidents, 10 of them in a single mass shooting at a Lwandle shisanyama in the early hours of Sunday.
Among those still grappling with how close they came to the bloodshed is Bongeka*, who left KwaNdelu Shisanyama around midnight, less than two hours before gunfire erupted.
She had no idea that less than two hours later her friends would be dodging bullets as gunmen opened fire on patrons, killing 10 people and wounding 11 others.
She had spent the evening with friends at the Lwandle establishment, where a Heritage Day celebration was under way, before leaving for home.
The following morning, as she prepared for work, Bongeka came across a Facebook post saying there had been a mass shooting at KwaNdelu.
Her thoughts immediately turned to the friends she had left behind.
“I started panicking and calling my friends. They did not immediately answer their phones. I went to work and tried them using the work phone, and only then did they answer,” she said.
But what her friends told her about the shooting left her shaken.
According to Bongeka, her friends told her that one of the gunmen had stood near the entrance for about 10 minutes before opening fire.
I am shattered, and I still think about what happened. As I was sitting on top of people, I kept praying and saying to God, ‘Not today.’— Asa Nondallz Deejay
“They said he had an AK-47. He then started shooting randomly. I still get chills when I think about it, asking myself what could have happened if I was still there,” she said.
“It was also the first time that we went to that place because there was a Heritage celebration.”
Another patron, a local DJ who uses the name Asa Nondallz Deejay on Facebook, said she was inside the establishment when the shooting erupted.
“I am shattered, and I still think about what happened. As I was sitting on top of people, I kept praying and saying to God, ‘Not today.’ During the process, I lost my phone because I was so scared,” she said.
She said that after the shooting, instead of immediately leaving the area, she asked others to help her search for her phone. It was eventually found.
According to police, five people died at the scene while another five succumbed to their injuries after being taken to medical facilities. Eleven others were wounded.
The massacre has shaken the Lwandle community, with residents meeting police on Monday to discuss crime and safety in the area and the way forward following the attack.
Western Cape police commissioner Lt-Gen Sizakhele Dyantyi has established a multidisciplinary team led by serious violent crime detectives to investigate the shooting and hunt down those responsible.
“Detectives are hard at work in search of the perpetrators of the shooting incident, with no arrests effected yet,” Dyantyi said.
Police have opened 10 murder and 11 attempted murder cases. No motive for the attack has yet been established.
SAPS has increased deployments in Lwandle while the investigation and search for the gunmen continue.
Police have appealed to anyone with information that could assist investigators to come forward, saying information received will be treated in strict confidence.
KwaNdelu has since apologised to the families of those killed, the injured, its employees and the wider community.
“We humbly ask for forgiveness and sincerely apologise for the pain, grief and suffering experienced by the families, those who were injured, our employees and the wider community,” the establishment said.
KwaNdelu, which says its normal operating hours are strictly until 10pm, acknowledged that the premises had remained active beyond those hours on the night of the massacre.
“On this particular occasion, the premises remained active beyond our normal trading hours as part of a Heritage Day celebration,” it said.
For Bongeka, however, the events of that night have left her contemplating how a decision to leave when she did may have saved her from being caught in the gunfire.