FIVE ALLEGED BOKO HARAM BANDITS SHOT AND KILLED IN BRONKHORSTSPRUIT, TSHWANE

Five alleged Boko Haram bandits were shot and killed in Bronkhorstspruit, Tshwane on Monday.

The Boko Haram bandits who are believed to be from Mamelodi, reportedly went to a road construction site in Bronkhorstspruit on Monday with an intention to disrupt work on the project and demand a 30% share.

But their coercive tactics backfired when, they were followed by a group of unknown suspects.

Their dead bodies were later found in an open field in Cullinan.

It is widely believed that after the altercation they had caused at the construction site in demand for a 30% share in the project, the Boko Haram bandits were abducted on their way home to Mamelodi, tortured and killed before being dumped in an open field in Cullinan.

According to sources, the Boko Haram bandits who were abducted were originally six in number, but one of them managed to escape after the people who had abducted and tortured him together with his fellow bandits thought he was dead, but he was actually alive.

Sources told Tshwane Talks that the angry assailants made it clear to the Boko Haram bandits that the Bronkhorstspruit area was not like Mamelodi where they do as they wish with impunity.

It is said that their assailants were also angered by the fact that the Boko Haram bandits travelled all the way from Mamelodi with the sole aim of disrupting a project that would benefit the local Bronkhorstspruit community.

It is alleged that the bandits were sent by their boss to disrupt the said road construction project in Bronkhorstspruit, and that he is now angry and wants revenge for the deaths of his gang members.

The Boko Haram bandits are notorious for seeking “protection fee” from foreign spaza shop owners, local businesses and construction projects in Mamelodi by threatening owners with death or violence if they fail to comply with their demands for a 30% share in any enterprise.

The HM Pitje Stadium as well as the Mamelodi East Magistrate’s Court became failed projects because of the bandits who stopped labourers from working on the projects in demand for a 30% share in the two projects.

Sources are of the opinion that there is a government official who gives tip-off to Boko Haram bandits regarding the location of construction projects and the amount of money awarded to the owner of the tender, so that they can go to any given construction site and demand 30% of the said amount without doing any work whatsoever.

According to sources, the people who abducted, tortured and killed the Boko Haram bandits had all along been waiting in anticipation for the bandits to come to the construction site to use their usual extortion tactics in order to get a share in the project.

It is believed that the bandits were benefitting from the tender that has now been stopped by City of Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink in Mamelodi and now wanted to exploit the said new construction project in Bronkhorstspruit, this as they are used to getting easy money from tender projects.

A statement released by Gauteng SAPS spokesperson Colonel Mavela Masondo reads as follows:

“Police have opened a case of five counts of murder, after dead bodies of five males were discovered in an open field riddled with gunshot wounds.”

“The motive for the killing cannot be confirmed at this stage and police are searching for suspects and no arrests have been made yet,” said Masondo.