Catch us if you can!

The community of Tshikota in Makhado is living in fear after the escape of four notorious suspects from police custody on Friday morning. This was made even worse when one of the escapees reportedly phoned a local radio station, boasting about the fact that he was now free once more to do as he liked.

Given Mpofu (24), Dzulani Nemukula (23), Evans Chipara and Trust Chikwadzi were reportedly being transported in a  police vehicle to the Louis Trichardt Magistrate's Court last Friday. They grabbed the opportunity to escape when they were off-loaded at the court.

According to the spokesperson for the Limpopo police, Brig Hangwani Mulaudzi, the four suspects overpowered the police officer who was transporting them and took his duty pistol before running away. “We are appealing to members of the community to provide us with information regarding this case and the escapees' whereabouts,” said Mulaudzi.

In the meantime, news about the escape of the “people who have been terrorising the community of Tshikota” spread through the Makhado area like wildfire. Soon the Tshikota community, both local residents and immigrants, converged at the community hall to talk about their safety and how they could hunt the criminals.

The situation quickly got out of hand, with residents accusing the police of doing very little to protect the community. They started barricading all the streets with stones, rubbish bins and fallen trees and some residents also burnt tyres. The police reportedly arrived in motor vehicles and helicopters to restore order.

“They fired rubber bullets at demonstrators,” said the leader of the Makhado Zim Community, Mr Gift Eglone. The situation was defused when local residents, immigrants living in Tshikota and Cllr Abraham du Plooy (Ward 21) managed to arrange that a meeting with the Makhado police's station commander, Lt Francois Ramovha, and Makhado SAPS cluster commander Brig Alex Seopa be held.

“We reached a resolution to start building a strategic partnership between the South Africans, the immigrants and the police in Tshikota,” said Eglone. “We've unified ourselves to become an anti-crime entity.”

On Sunday afternoon, the local radio station, Makhado FM, received a call from a person who identified himself as Given Mpofu. Listeners who know Mpofu later stated that it sounded exactly like the fugitive. In the radio interview, the caller stated that he was shocked about the fact that the residents of Tshikota were making such a fuss about his being out of prison.

A copy of the interview was handed over to the police for further investigation.

On Tuesday, members of the Tshikota community started clearing away the litter, stones and burnt tyres from the streets. “We believe that the police will play their part in this case, as much as the community will play its role,” said Gift Eglone.

Given Mpofu's alleged criminal activities in Tshikota had initially divided the community into two groups, the South Africans and the Zimbabweans. In the second week of November 2013, the community members went berserk and burnt down a hostel, set Mpofu's lover's RDP house on fire and went out looking for Mpofu as he was thought to have been the leader of a group which had been terrorising the community. Residents were armed with iron rods, sticks, stones and wires. Mpofu and his two co-accused, Dzulani Nemukula (23) and Courage Shoko (23), were arrested later on 27 November at Gogobole village.

Cllr Abraham du Plooy (Ward 21) said that the community members were angry when they received news that the suspects believed to have been terrorising the community had escaped. “They thought the police had just released the suspects,” Du Plooy said.

“But it's bad to see the residents taking the law into their own hands and breaking the very infrastructure which belongs to them. The police are busy with the investigations into the escapees' case; people must only inform the police about the crimes taking place among them.”

Du Plooy said that another way of effectively winning the fight against crime was to start structuring the community policing forum in Tshikota.

News - Date: 07 February 2014

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]