A family has been left traumatised after two young siblings were gunned down in Gugulethu.
Loyola Gwadiso, 8, and her one-year-old brother Khanide were killed on Monday.
The children were playing about 15 metres from their Lotus Park informal settlement home as the shooters were chasing their targets down the narrow roads of the area.
They siblings were rushed to hospital, but sadly, their parents were informed that they both succumbed to their injuries.
When the Daily Voice arrived at the children’s home on Wednesday, their father Ntembeko and mom Bomikazi Gwadiso sat with relatives in their shack.
The hartseer dad says: “I went to hospital and when we arrived, the doctor called us into a private room and told us the way that our children were wounded, there was no way they would have survived.
“They were playing outside the shack when unknown men got here and started shooting at their target - a group of young men - who then ran in the direction where my children were.
“And that is how they were shot. My children were shot several times, my daughter was shot under the chin and also in the chest.
“After seeing her like that I lost it and couldn’t go and see my son, but I was told that he was shot in the head and stomach.”
Bomikazi says this was not the first shooting in the area, adding: “A few months ago, a young man who had just come from initiation school, was brutally killed.
“We never thought we would be affected. This has left us shaken, especially as we have to go to the mortuary and identify our children [today].”
The couple has another 10-year-old child.
Bomikazi adds that her children will be laid to rest in Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape.
Police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg says Gugulethu detectives are investigating two counts of murder following the shooting incident in NY3A on Monday afternoon.
Twigg reports: “According to reports the victims were playing outside when unknown men started shooting at each other.
“The children were caught in the crossfire and were transported to a local hospital where they were declared deceased. The suspects fled the scene and are yet to be arrested.”