The newly installed traditional leader at Vondo la Thavha outside Thohoyandou, Vhamusanda Vho Mugivhela Tshivhase, has issued a stern warning for his subjects not to take the law into their own hands.

Tshivhase, a senior official of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, reacted after a woman was atttacked in the bushes, not far from her home, while in search of firewood. The incident, which left the closely knit rural community in a state of shock, happened on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking from her hospital bed, Ms Lucy Mudau (46), one of the survivors, narrated her ordeal. The heavily bandaged survivor, who suffered wounds to her head and lost one of her fingers in the attack, said she and her two friends decided to go looking for firewood in the nearby bushes on that fateful day. “On arrival at the mountain, we all scattered and went into different directions,” she said.

According to her, two unknown men wearing work suits suddenly emerged from the bushes. ´I could sense that something was wrong. They were holding big pangas and they just looked vicious. I tried to run away, but they caught up with me and for no reason chopped my little finger off and also cut me on the head,” she said.

She said the men did not say what they wanted, but they later told her to hand over her cellphone, which she did. “They told me I was lucky to have a phone, because if I did not have one, they would have killed me," she said.

She said she managed to run away towards the village, even though she was bleeding heavily. “It is only through the grace of God that I am still alive today. How I reached home is still a mystery and what happened to my friends is still unknown to me. I am just happy that they are also safe,” she said.

Mudau said she has been going to the same mountain for wood on several occassions, but nothing of this sort has never happened to her.

She said the attackers did not speak fluent Tshivenda, which made people to suspect that they could be foreigners.

Reacting after the incident, Pastor Nkhangweni Ramalivhana, the local Sanco chairperson, said it was time that the community became aware of the people around them. “We need to draw up a register of all foreigners in our midst. We regard them as part of the community, but we must have a database of them,” he said.

The local traditional leader, Khosi Tshivhase urged for calm in the community. “This is an act of violence which could have been committed by anybody, including our locals. People should wait for the law to take its own course,” he said.