Two arrested after content of house disappears

The incident took place at Ravele village in the Sinthumule area during the second week of August.

The Tshilwavhusiku police managed to trace and track the suspect in Ravele. The suspect, Mr Tshifhiwa Tshiovhe (33), is the complainant's neighbour and, according to the police, had allegedly confessed to them about the theft. He also allegedly led them to Ha-Matidza in the Nzhelele area and to Tshikota near Makhado (Louis Trichardt).

Tshiovhe later implicated Mpho Melton Madume (27) of Tshikuwi in Nzhelele. He had allegedly ferried some of the stolen items to these places to hide them, and his confession proved valuable when nearly all the stolen items were recovered on Tuesday, 21 August.

“I don't know what's happening with me,” said Tshiovhe at the Tshilwavhusiku police station. “Ndo tou dzhenwa nga limuya (The evil spirit had possessed me). I had also sold some things to a Zimbabwean.”

According to the complainant, Mrs Tovhowani Sadiki, she came home from her place of work in Gauteng on Monday, 20 August, and found that the main door of her house had been broken down. She stepped inside and noticed that her stove, couches, music system, refrigerator and microwave oven were missing. Little did she know that this was only the beginning of a heart-breaking sight in the house. Doors were damaged in all the rooms, and wardrobe doors were also vandalised.

“Just imagine your own neighbour doing this kind of harm to you,” Sadiki shook her head. “Together with the police, we went to Tshifhiwa's house and found his wife watching TV programmes on my TV set. I can't believe it - they were even using my plates and table cloths.”

Sadiki says she is not only angry with Tshiovhe, but also with some of his relatives, who had accepted stolen goods from him, when they clearly knew that he had never owned such items himself.

Lt Col Freddy Shirinda lauded the Tshilwavhusiku SAPS's investigating team, who managed to trace and arrest the suspect. Tshiovhe and Madume were charged with burglary and appeared in court on Tuesday, where their case was postponed to 11 October for trial.

News - Date: 17 September 2012

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]