A terrified mother who survived but lost her daughter in the deadly mass shooting in Umlazi, south of Durban, is considering fleeing the area due to safety concerns.

Eight people were shot dead in an attack in Zamani transit camp in U-section in Umlazi on Friday night. Two others are fighting for their lives in hospital while three people were able to escape unharmed.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Col Robert Netshiunda confirmed that police found six men and two women lying in a pool of blood with multiple gunshot wounds when they arrived at the scene.

“It is reported that the victims were inside the dwelling when an unknown number of suspects entered and opened fire, killing them. Investigations into the possible motive for the killings are under way and police have launched a manhunt for the suspects,” he said.

Zibuyile Madondo is one of the people who survived the incident. She told TimesLIVE that she escaped unharmed by hiding behind a sofa when the gunmen opened fire from outside the house but her 19-year old daughter was not as fortunate.

“She was the last one to be killed. They shot her and she fell on my feet which is where she passed away. She had just come back from the shops where her uncle had sent her and her friend to buy cigarettes when gunmen opened fire from outside the house,” said a distraught Zibuyile.

She said she did not get to see the gunmen as she was hiding and that she is planning to relocate as she fears for her safety after the incident.

“I will not come back here after work because I was in that incident and I don’t know if they spotted me and I will be the next target. I don’t know what will happen if I come back. My daughter, whom I lived with, is one of those who died and I’m scared,” she said.

Madondo said they were relocated to the transit camp in 2010 from the nearby Uganda informal settlements and were told they would be there for only six months.

“When we arrived here, my daughter was three years old and was 19 when she died last night.”

She said after the incident they l did not feel safe in the residential units which were only meant to serve as temporary accommodation.

“Someone can kick down the sides of these houses and do whatever they want and leave. They can get in from anywhere, they don’t need the door. We were outside the whole night after the incident. We were too scared to go inside or to sleep at all.”

Ward 89 councillor Mbongeni Mjadu confirmed the residents were moved to the area from 2009, which was said to have been a temporary measure ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

He said the residents were still traumatised from the shooting.

“We will have to have a meeting because it looks like no one will sleep inside their houses because they don’t feel safe since they don’t know the motive or what happened. They don’t know if they are going be the next victims. So if we can try to find possible motives then maybe we can calm them.”

This is not the first mass shooting in the area. Mjadu said a similar incident happened not far from there in 2021 in which six people were killed.

Another six people were killed in the nearby Uganda informal settlements, though it doesn’t fall under this ward, in 2023.

KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli said due to such incidents, the local community would not feel safe until the perpetrators were found and arrested.

Ntuli, who also serves as the MEC for community safety and liaison in the province, visited the area on Saturday morning. He said he was worried by these incidents and that it was making communities feel unsafe.

One problem in the area was the environmental design as there was inadequate lighting at night and the state of the roads made it difficult for police to access the area.

“One of the priorities is to see if something can be done to improve the lighting at night.”

He called on residents to assist the police in their investigation into the shooting incident by sharing any information they might have, even if they do it anonymously using the 0800 10111 number.

“At the end of the day, the issue of mass shootings will not be ended if the community themselves do not stand together and point out the problematic individuals in their area. It’s common cause that where there is much crime in an area, the criminals are known by the community (and) it’s only the police who don’t know [who the criminals are]” he said.

“So the issue of community policing is important. Each member of society must consider themselves as responsible for providing information to the police so they can act.”

Ntuli noted that nothing could be ruled out in the investigation as some people in community safety structures had been found to be participating in crime.

He said he was made aware of a metro police officer who was arrested while participating in the pre-funeral celebrations of the life of an alleged criminal in the area.

“There is someone who is alleged to have been actively involved in crime, aggressively, who was shot to death and the funeral will be tomorrow. So there has been air shooting the whole week and among those was the policeman which is very a very unfortunate thing.”

He said the police force should not be tainted by the actions of a few “rotten apples” and he was confident police were fighting aggressively against crime.