Dad’s plea to find killers of his 3 sons

Just six months after laying one of their five sons to rest, Duncan Village resi- dents Vusumzi Zembe and his wife Nontsapho are now preparing to bury another two.

All three were shot dead.

Tragedy first struck in April this year when Ludwe, 25, the third eldest,  was killed outside Buccaneer’s Sports Pub and Grill on the Esplanade.

On Saturday, second eldest Visicelo, 27, and Ntlanganiso, 23, were with a friend, Lungisani Maxinzi, 23, in a busy street in Duncan Village’s C Section when all three were shot dead in broad daylight.

The deaths have devastated the close-knit family and there seems little hope the killers will face justice.

Speaking to the Daily Dispatch this week, the parents said the motive for the killings was unknown.

Zembe, who raised his sons in a shack, said: “I am pleading with the government to investigate the deaths of my sons.

“It is not easy to lose three sons in just six months. It hurts very much – worse that they were not children, these were fully grown men.”

East London police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mtati Tana said police were at “a critical stage” in the case and could divulge nothing further.

Zembe said he had spoken to Visicelo an hour before he was ambushed by four men armed with handguns and a shotgun.

“I wanted to find out where he and his brother were. He told me that they had just finished burying their best friend Jerome Phyllis in Fynbos and were making their way back to Duncan Village,” Zembe said.

Phyllis – who owned six taxis and a car wash – was himself shot dead  two weeks ago by two men, who  shot him seven times outside his house.

Phyllis was one of 10 people arrested alongside five Napoleon family members in July in connection with drug busts at 16 houses in Vergenoeg, Parkside, Braelyn, Buffalo Flats and a Kei Road farm.

Evidence was collected from nine of the homes and drugs worth R3.5-million and R4-million were recovered.

At the time of his death Phyllis was out on R50000 bail and was due in court on October 5.

Zembe, who saw the scene where his sons were shot on Saturday, said he watched police search their pockets.

“Visicelo had R5210 and Ntlanganiso R21. Lungisani had R1500,” the devastated father said. He dismissed claims that his sons were drug dealers.

“Police have been at our home with their sniffer dogs many times looking for illegal firearms and drugs here.

“They have never found anything. I have never seen a single drug in my home,” he said.

Ntlanganiso, who was himself facing a murder charge, was also out on bail.

He was arrested in 2013 and accused of stabbing to death the 17-year-old son of Duncan Village community policing forum chairman Ludumo Salman.

Zembe said: “My son was no murderer. The matter was still on trial and he had not yet been found guilty by the court of law.”

The deaths of the three young men bring to eight the number of people shot and killed in the area in the past two weeks.

Those murdered include:

lLiyabona Mbembe of Duncan Village C-Section, who was shot and killed on Friday September 11;

lJerome Phyllis of Fynbos and Thembela Nyhamfu of Mzamo Street in Duncan Village, who were both killed on Saturday September 12; and

lBuffalo Flats couple Mzuvukile and Ncediswe Nkatha who were killed on Sunday September 13.

Tana said no arrests had yet been made and he would not be drawn into commenting on whether the cases were linked.