mpumalanga police manhunt executions

Photo: Pexels/Somchai Kongkamsri

Manhunt underway for culprits of double-murder in Witbank

One of the victims was able to phone his brother for help shortly before he was gunned down on a farm along with another man.

mpumalanga police manhunt executions

Photo: Pexels/Somchai Kongkamsri

After a gruesome double-murder in Mpumalanga on Monday night, police in the province have launched a manhunt for killers who dumped their victim’s body on a Witbank farm. 

The bodies of a 24-year old and a 30-year-old were discovered on Tuesday 12 May. The victims had been shot and were lying on top of one another in the bushes on the farm.

Victim phoned brother for help

Police were called to the scene in the early hours of Tuesday morning when a relative of one of the victims phone in and said that his brother was in danger. 

Police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said that the victim had told his brother that he had been shot and was hiding from his assailant in the bushes. 

“Police received information in the early hours of the morning from a concerned family member who informed them that his 24-year-old brother, called him alleging that he had been shot and was hiding in the bush at a farm nearby,” he said. 

He said that an initial search for the culprits had been unsuccessful. 

“Police immediately attended to the matter and went out and searched for him, without any success.”

“They then summoned the K9 Unit who continued with the search where they later discovered Emmanuel Mashengwane’s body and that of the second victim piled on top of each other, with gunshot wounds, at the said farm.”

“They (police) then summoned the paramedics who certified both victims dead at the scene.”

‘Killers will face the full might of the law’

A manhunt has now been launched and police are appealing the public for information about the killing so they can make progress in tracking down the perpetrators. A case of murder has been opened. 

Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma said that nobody has the right to commit such a heinous crime. 

“I am very disturbed by the senseless killing of the two men and as such have ordered for the search of the suspects. No one has the right to take someone’s life, those responsible for this callous act will face the full might of the law,” he said.