Innocent resident seriously injured by mob

A unlucky man happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and his presence in the bushes not far from Bunzhe village earned him the wrath of the angry residents, who gave him the beating of his life.

The incident, which happened on Tuesday last week at the intersection to Bunzhe village along the Punda Maria road, left the man seriously injured. The stretch between the village and the main road where residents catch their transport is notoriously known for robberies by criminals who use the dense bushy area as their cover after the robberies.

Only the timely intervention of the police, who were assisting the community in hunting criminals in the bushes, saved the man from certain death.

Early that day, a robbery was committed along the stretch between Bunzhe and the Punda Maria road. Two girls on their way to school and a woman going to work were robbed of their valuables and cash, allegedly by two neatly dressed armed robbers.

Word spread like wildfire that the robbers had kidnapped one of the girls “Boko Haram style”. Residents from Bunzhe and their neighbours soon gathered and decided to hunt for the two robbers and the schoolgirl, who were believed to be in the nearby bushes. Soon they were joined by the police, but they were scattered in groups all over the plantation.

One of the groups came across the man, who was hiding in thick bushes. Residents did not give him a chance to explain his presence and they started attacking him with every weapon that they could lay their hands on. Contrary to the description by eyewitnesses, the man's clothing was dirty and he looked like someone in the construction industry. This did not spare him as he got the beating of his life.

Police and leaders of the community had to struggle to free the man from the angry crowd. Angry residents also tried to block the police van from taking him away, but they managed to take him to hospital.

During the commotion, news came that the girl was at school and that she had not been kidnapped.  The police went to the school as angry residents insisted that there had been a kidnapping, and they brought the girl and the woman who had been robbed. “It is surprising; this man knows that we are hunting for criminals, so how come is he here hiding? There is so much crime in this area. Hardly a week passes without a crime being committed here, and people are really angry,” said Ms Luambo Gelebe, the deputy chairperson of Bunzhe Sanco.

She said the latest incident had united the community and that they were going to hold a meeting to seek ways of fighting crime. “We have a problem here. People come and go without being monitored and we might be staying with these criminals, not knowing them,” she said.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Const Avhafarei Tshiovhe said there was confusion about a girl being kidnapped, but this turned out to be untrue. “We are aware of the incident and we will await the victims to open cases. The injured man can also open a case, once he recovers,” she said.

News - Date: 27 February 2015

Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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