“Arrest the killers, or we will!”

The community of Tshivhulana outside Vuwani say they have had enough of senseless and mysterious deaths in their village. They have given the Vuwani police an ultimatum to arrest perpetrators, or they will do it themselves.

Community leader Bishop Tshishonga says mysterious deaths in his community have become a source of concern as no one has been punished for the killings.

Tshishonga’s remarks came after the mysterious death of Mr Simon Muthambi (35) of Tshivhulana village. Muthambi is the younger brother of former journalist Amos Muthambi. Muthambi is believed to be the fourth person to have died in recent years, and in the past three cases the police are alleged not have had a breakthrough and the killers remain at large.

The information available is that Simon left home around 08:00 on Saturday morning and was seen drinking with friends at the local bar. It is alleged he was in the company of his girlfriend. It is also alleged that he later went to another bar at Tshino, not far from Vuwani.

Rumours abound that he was last seen with the girlfriend at the bar and was only found dead the following morning in bushes a distance from where they were drinking. He had a stab wound on the head and there were no signs of a struggle where he was found. Indications are that he might have been killed somewhere in the village and was dumped there.

Neighbours who prefer to remain anonymous said they did not hear any noise, indicating that there was no fight in the vicinity. “If this man was killed here, we would have heard noises here and there is no sign of a struggle here, which convinces us that he was dumped here,” said a resident.

Bishop Tshishonga said the community was tired of senseless deaths. “We have had so many mysterious deaths in this village. First it was Fhatuwani Mashige, who was found murdered along the Thsitungulwani road, followed by Mpho Muthambi, the younger sister to Communications minister Faith Muthambi. Her body was found in bushes next to Lwenzhe Secondary School. Vulani Shithlavani was murdered while collecting firewood in the veld and this has infuriated the community, who feel that the police are not doing enough to solve crimes in the area."

On behalf of the family, Mr Stanley Muthambi said they were shaken by the death of their loved one. “We believe that our brother was killed somewhere and dumped where he was found at Tshino just to confuse the police, but we are happy the police are keeping us abreast of the case and are following all the leads. We are consoled by relatives and neighbours and this has helped us to accept this very tragic situation,” he said.

He further indicated that they attended a post mortem, which indicated that their brother was chopped at the back of his head. “We are now focussing on giving our brother a decent send-off and we will bury him on Saturday,” he said.

Vuwani police spokesperson W/O Elijah Malatjie said that they had opened a murder case and had not arrested anyone in connection with the case yet. "Our investigations are continuing and we would like to make an appeal to anyone who might have heard or seen something to help in the investigation," he said.

News - Date: 03 August 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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