News24.com | Mpumalanga councillor and two others gunned down, suspects on the run

Councillor Sbonelo Mthembu was killed following a shooting in Piet Retief. (Supplied by SAPS)

• An ANC ward councillor, his friend and a mechanic have been killed following a shooting in Piet Retief.
• They were shot by three unknown suspects.
• The suspects are on the run.

Mpumalanga police are searching for three suspects who shot and killed an ANC councillor and two other people in Piet Retief on Friday evening.

Councillor Sbonelo Mthembu, 36, his mechanic and another man were shot in Mkhondo, shortly after Mthembu and the mechanic were dropped off by a friend who was driving a bakkie.

According to the police, three armed men appeared on the private premises and started firing multiple shots at the councillor and also fatally shot the friend who was still inside his bakkie.

"The mechanic did not escape the shooting as he was shot by the same suspects whilst in the yard as well. Thereafter the three suspects fled in an unknown direction," police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhuli said.

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He said Mthembu and his mechanic were privately taken to a nearby hospital. 

"The mechanic was unfortunately certified dead on arrival meanwhile, the councillor regrettably succumbed to his injuries moments later," said Mdhuli.

Meanwhile, when police and paramedics arrived at the scene, they found a man lying motionless behind a steering wheel of a white bakkie with a gunshot wound. He was certified deceased by paramedics.

Mdhuli said that a case with three counts of murder was opened, and the suspects are still at large.

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