Angry residents at Phiphidi outside Thohoyandou went on the rampage, blocking roads with burning tyres, rocks and whatever they could lay their hands on last Monday.

They ended up burning the only satellite police station in the area.

Their anger is said to have been sparked by the alleged harbouring of a suspected thug whom the community had been hunting for a long time. The community linked the alleged criminal to a spate of violent crimes such as robberies, rapes and vicious attacks on residents. He allegedly targets school children, whom he robs of their pocket money.

The alleged thug, whose reign of terror started in 2011, was arrested by members of the community, who hounded him to a taxi which was heading to the village. Realizing that the life of the man was in danger, the driver of the taxi is alleged to have driven straight to the satellite police station.

It is said that the police had fired rubber bullets at the villagers when they arrived at the police station. The villagers fled the scene but came back in the evening and burnt down the station, which also served as Home Affairs offices.

A resident who did not want to be identified said the burning of the satellite station could be a way of showing their dissatisfaction with the way the police were handling crime in the village. “We are at the receiving end. We are at the mercy of criminals. We give police the names of the criminals, but still they do nothing. We arrest them, and they protect those criminals,” she said.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Cons Avhafarei Tshiovhe denied the notion that the police are protecting criminals. “The problem with our people is that they do not understand that we are responsible for arrests and what happens in the courts is beyond our control. A suspect is entitled to bail and sometimes cases are thrown out as a result of a lack of evidence,” she said. She said the suspect was in custody and would appear in court soon.

Tshiovhe condemned the burning of property by the community. 

“The property they are burning belongs to them as the government wants them to get services closer to their homes. We have opened a case of malicious damage to property in respect of the damage caused by residents to the satellite police station in the afternoon and also an arson case in respect of the fire in the evening. No one has been arrested so far,” she said.