JOHANNES Dube, one of Limpopo's most wanted criminals, and an accomplice have been killed in a shootout with police.

Dube has been a fugitive from the police for nearly a year.

Dube was the leader of a gang that terrorised residents of Mahwelereng in Mokopane, Magatle and Zebediela for more than a year.

Police spokesperson Superintendent Ronel Otto said they had acted on a tip-off that Dube was hiding in the Secunda area in Mpumalanga. Police then went to a house in Embalenhle.

"When he realised that the house was surrounded, he started firing in the direction of the police and they retaliated and shot and killed two men in the process," Otto said.

According to Otto, Dube's murder spree began at the end of May when Dube and his gang, police say, murdered Lieutenant Colonel FM Kubjana, a member of the SANDF - after hijacking his car.

When police later spotted Kubjana's vehicle at a filling station, the occupants of another vehicle shot at them, killing Constable Geoffrey Sithomola.

His colleague, Constable John Kekana, was admitted to hospital with serious bullet wounds to the stomach.

"The following day, June 2, a vehicle belonging to Captain MS Masango was found abandoned.

Following the arrest of four suspects, Masango's body was found in a bush near Magatle.

The four suspects are Jacob Leolo, of Zebediela, Dingaan Amos Dube, of Seshego, Jackson Nkuna, of Mahwelereng, and Kedibone Sheriff Kekane, of Zebediela.

Last week, a woman who owned a shop in Mahwelereng was shot and later died in hospital.

Dube was also alleged to be the mastermind behind the shooting and killing of the woman, Otto said.