TEN family members were gunned down while sleeping in the early hours of Friday morning, 21 April.
It's alleged gunmen entered the house in Imbali unit 14 in Pietermaritzburg, KZN and opened fire.
Two of the suspects were arrested, while one was killed not far from the crime scene while performing a cleansing ritual.
Police Minister Bheki Cele, who was speaking outside the family home on the same day, said Plessislaer cops received information that there were people who were performing a cleansing ritual about one kilometre away from the house.
"Police went to see. And in that place, four men were found outside. When the men saw police, they opened fire at the police. Cops returned fire and one of the suspects died, one was injured and arrested and another one, who was not injured, was also arrested. One escaped but he is known by the police," he said.
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Cele said one of the suspects gave cops the name of their inyanga and revealed that they were cleansed before and after they committed a crime.
"There was also a lot of muthi in the place these four men were found at," said Cele.
Among the murdered family members were seven women and three men.
The youngest victim was a 13-year-old while the eldest was a 63-year-old woman, who was the mother of the family.
It's still not clear why the family was wiped out in such a tragic manner, but police said they were still investigating.
A family friend, Siyabonga Ndebele, said they were in shock.
"Last year the father of this family was gunned down like this. There were people arrested and the matter is in court. So, we don’t know if this is linked to that or not. We leave everything to the police."
