Angry youth must control their emotions

The Makhado SAPS, community-based stakeholders and the Mailaskop community held a memorial service on Friday after the killing of a 21-year-old man and the subsequent banishing of all Zimbabwean residents from the village.

All the speakers told the angry youths to calm down and control their emotions after they had chased off all Zimbabwean residents from the village because a Zimbabwean national had allegedly stabbed Thendo Elton Mongango to death.

According to the police report, the stabbing took place in the vicinity of a local bar lounge shortly before midnight on 9 August, causing the youths to decide to use force to chase away the Zimbabwean residents from the village.

A community elder, Vho-Maita Ramaite, fell out of favour with the youths the moment he lashed at their 'peer pressure' actions. “We had four similar cases of murder here in the past, where two South Africans and two foreign nationals were killed in this fashion,” he said. “They were all in or coming from drinking spots. Stop what you are doing now, or else you might live to regret your actions. Give the police room to do their duty in the case.”

The male youths left the tent, labelling Ramaite a "mad person" who didn't understand that "one of us was killed". However, he continued with his speech, giving harsh but contructive advice to the youths who had now sat under the tree a short distance from the tent.

When the Makhado SAPS's cluster commander, Brig Alex Seopa, rose to give his speech, all the youths came back inside the tent. “You can be angry, and it's good and normal to get angry after the death of the one you loved, but it's always bad to act in a criminal manner because you are angry,” Seopa warned. “Stop doing things which you'll regret tomorrow.”

He told the people that the police had arrested the suspect in the case, Muthelo Hardlife (19). He appeared in the Louis Trichardt Magistrate's Court on 12 August, where his case was postponed to 18 September, pending further investigation.

Seopa urged the community members to refrain from banishing the Zimbabwean residents. “If they are illegal, it's your duty to report them to the police, who will then arrest them,” he said. “You said you have a headman here. So, it's for you to register your legal foreign visitors in the headman's books, so that you can manage your social affairs properly.”

It also emerged that the owner of the tavern at which the fight started was fined for letting people enter his premises with weapons.

Thendo's older sister, Lilian Mongango, couldn't sit through the service; she left the tent with tears running down her cheeks.

Thendo was laid to rest on Saturday at Mailaskop.

News - Date: 22 August 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]