Angry community members demonstrated outside the Vuwani Magistrate’s Court last Thursday, demanding that bail be refused to a suspect in a murder case.

It is alleged that the suspect, Mmbengeni Mashila from Tshakuma, refused to divorce his wife, Ms Thifhelimbilu Mphephu. In December last year, police arrested Mashila on suspicion that he had abducted his two-year-old child, Mashudu, from her mother.

Mashila did not spent a lot of time in jail and when he was released, it is alleged that he told people that he was going to kill his estranged wife and his child.

On March 19 this year, he allegedly went to his estranged wife’s home in Tshakuma with a sword to kill them. He did not, however, find anybody when he started searching in the orchard. At that time, his estranged wife’s mother, Mrs Masindi Mphephu, was busy ploughing. He allegedly questioned her about the whereabouts of his child and her mother, but she said she didn’t know where they were. Mashila is accused of then hacking her to death with the sword. It is further alleged that after the murder he burnt down their huts.

The suspect’s estranged wife, Thifhelimbilu Mphephu, said that she was opposing the bail application, because if he were released she would not be safe with her child. “I need the justice system to make sure that this man does not get bail,” an unhappy Mphephu said.

The chairperson of the community policing forum in Levubu and community leader at Tshakuma, Mudalahothe Kenneth Ranwashe, said that the community members were opposing the bail application because the suspect was dangerous.

The bail application was postponed to June 12, at Vuwani Magistrate Court, pending further investigations.