There was drama at Maungani on Saturday when a man, who seemed love-smitten and possessed, wreaked havoc and allegedly threatened to kill his lover and her family, before shooting and wounding two police officers.

It is said the man could not accept his girlfriend´s child by another man.

Police neutralised the man by shooting him in the left shoulder before arresting him.

Thifhelimbilu Nemaungani of Maungani, who was the intended victim, said she fell in love with the man in 2007 through the traditional match-making and everything went well, until she told him she had a child by another man. "After disclosing to him that I have a child, his attitude changed completely and our relationship soured," she said.

Nemeungani said they had constant fights and he even went to the extent of assaulting her in the presence of his parents. She said the cracks in their relationship seemed to have mended until this week when he ordered that she should visit him at Lwamondo, his home village, but with strict orders not to bring her child. "It seems as if the man had told his friends and relatives that he had a lovely girlfriend who did not even have a child. He probably feared that they would find out that I have a child," she said.

Nemaungani said she told him to his face that if her child was not welcome at his home she would not go there but that he should rather come to her home as he was welcome at any time. "I cannot be separated from my child by a jealous man who cannot accept reality. Tshilidzi is my child and he comes first," she said.

She said they last met the previous day and he did not show any signs that he was up to something. "I am shocked and lack words to express my disappointment. This man would have killed me for nothing, and I regret the day I fell in love with him," she said.

Nemaungani said she was asleep at 05:00 when she heard that her boyfriend was calling for her at the door, but surprisingly, he was wielding a gun. "We bolted ourselves in the house with my sister and we phoned a neighbour, who called the police," she said. According to her, the man then grabbed the public phone they operated through the window and broke it, claiming it was his and that she was using up his money. "I froze and was dead scared, fearing that he might break the door and shoot us all," she said. The police arrived, only to find that he had vanished. They took a statement and left.

"We had almost forgotten about the incident when my brother told us the man was still in the village and daring to come back for the worst," she said. "Sensing danger, we stayed indoors with all the doors locked. True to his word, he came back at about two in the afternoon again, still wielding his gun and looking for me," she said

Nemaungani said they pretended as if they were not in as they took his threats seriously. "We again notified our neighbor who called the police as the man was going up and down our street, still threatening to shoot us all," she said. She said police arrived again, but he kept them at bay, threatening to kill them if they dared to try to arrest him.

The police arrested him after a fierce gun battle in which two officers were shot and injured before he was also shot. Nemaungani´s younger sister, Tshisamphiri, has this to tell about her ordeal: "I was looking for a pen early that Saturday morning when I found myself looking into the barrel of the gun with instruction that I should call my sister," she said. "I have never been so scared and it will take a long time before it leaves my mind," she said.

Captain Mashudu Malelo of the Limpopo police in Vhembe confirmed that a 35-year-old man from Lwamondo was shot before being arrested by police. He said the man was recuperating at a local hospital and will appear in court as soon as he recovers. He said two charges of attempted murder were being investigated against the suspect. One police officer who was injured in the incident was treated at hospital and discharged while the other was transferred to the provincial hospital in Polokwane.