A 46-year-old man who was severely injured when two thugs allegedly attacked him at night, has warned the parents of the ‘young boys’ to teach their children a lesson or else they will cry.

“There was peace in our village, but each time these boys are released from jail, they just wreak havoc and cause confusion in the village,” said a worried father of two, Mr Rodney Masase. “One day they will do this (pointing to his stitched wound) to somebody else who will just whip out a gun and aim at their heads.”

Masase explained that he was crossing the main road to the Sidija Bakery side when two men stormed at him at around 22:00. One of them then hit him on the nose with a beer bottle.

“I grabbed the other one at the chest in the hope that he wouldn’t run away, and that people who might come to rescue me would also recognise the thug,” said Masase, who had just returned from hospital for a check up on Sunday. “But he hit me on the head with a stone and I fell down.”

The stone left a gaping wound on his head, and he bled profusely.

Masase maintains that he recognised the two men, and that they also knew who he was because both of them were from Madombidzha village. “They are jailbirds; once they are out of prison, they do a crime and go back,” he said.

He adds that the hooligan style of mugging unsuspecting people in Madombidzha seems to be far from over.

The spokesperson for the Tshilwavhusiku police, Const Munyadziwa Marindi, confirmed the incident and said that two suspects were arrested while busy digging a grave at the cemetery, following the incident. The suspects were identified as Livhuwani Masia and Cry Luvha.

“They have since appeared in the Tshilwavhusiku Magistrate’s Court, where Luvha pleaded guilty and was given 30 days in jail with an option of paying a R300 fine,” said Marindi.

However, Masia is yet to appear in court for trial after he had denied guilt. He reportedly maintained that he saw a thug attacking Masase and rushed to the crime scene to help, since he knew the victim.

Vhamusanda Vho-Ntsundeni Sinthumule condemned the act of violence. “A father and community builder was attacked on the Saturday night during which the community leadership and the police held a crime awareness campaign,” said Sinthumule. “This is not what we want to see in our village. We will still call a community gathering and talk about these ugly crimes," he said.