Bloody shoot-out shocks SA
2006-06-26 12:41
Johannesburg - The deaths of eight
alleged gang members and four policemen in a bloody South
African shoot-out raised fresh fears of unbridled violence on
Monday despite government vows to bring crime rates down.
Sunday's gun battle, which shocked even crime-weary South
Africans, erupted after police followed suspects back to a house
following a robbery at a Johannesburg area supermarket and were
met with a hail of gunfire.
Police spokesperson Inspector Dennis Adriao said 11 surviving
suspects from the shoot-out in a residential area near central
Johannesburg would appear in court on Tuesday.
"They will face a number of charges, first and foremost
murder," Adriao said.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, who sparked
widespread outrage this month when he said people who "whinge"
about high crime levels should leave the country, expressed
shock and said the gang could have had military training.
"It seemed they had a level of training and had been trained
to shoot," he was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.
Adriao said police found a large cache of weapons, including
an AK-47, at the house as well as evidence linking the suspects
to the supermarket robbery.
South Africa suffers from some of the world's highest rates
of violent crime, with murders, car hijackings and violent
robberies covered in gory detail by the country's newspapers.
Officials say, however, that they are bringing crime rates
down and accuse the media of exaggerating crimes that affect the
country's relatively wealthy white minority.