TSHIVHASE - The troubled community of Tshivhase has welcomed the decision of the provincial office to hand the ritual murder cases to the special task team.

The Tshivhase Crisis Committee, together with the community led several protest marches, demanding that all ritual murder cases in their areas be removed from the local police and given to the Scorpion Unit.

This followed the death of youth leader Tendani Victor Lukhwareni, who was assassinated after he demanded the arrest of the suspects after the death of Mutshinyalo Grace Nephawe and other ritual murders in the area.

The community said they wanted the cases to be removed because they believe some of the local police were bribed, which according to the community, is the reason the cases were withdrawn against some of the suspects because of lack of information.

Dir Mzamani Ngobeni informed the committee about the decision on Thursday in the area office, Sibasa. Supt Johannes Fourie, who is the leader of the seven-member team, which started working on the cases on Thursday, was introduced to the committee.

Although the community welcomed the move, Avhatakali Nethononda, a leader of the Tshivhase Youth Committee, said they still wanted the Scorpions to investigate the cases as they had indicated before.