In a weekend that could be described as one of the worst in Vhembe, a family survived an attack but had one of their cars gutted in a fire caused by the attackers.

In another violent incident, a female constable attached to the Thohoyandou police died in hospital after she and her boyfriend were shot in their room at a lodge at Tshisahulu in the early hours of Sunday.

The Matogo family of Khubvi outside Thohoyandou is living in fear, following a shooting and burning incident by unknown people. The incident, which left the community in a state of shock, took place in the early hours of Monday.

Nndanganeni Peter Malogo (30), the owner of the house, said: "I was in deep sleep when I heard the sound of breaking glass outside. I knew something was amiss. The breaking glass was followed by gunshots and a fire broke out,” said Malogo

He said he knew that the suspects could be doing that to lure the family outside in order to kill them. “I phoned my neighbours, but I could see through my window that one of my cars was on fire. The neighbours responded fast and, on hearing the voices outside, I crept out of my room and called the police,” he said. He said there was a lot of confusion as the fire was spreading very fast and there was a possibility of the house and the other car catching fire.

He said they had to push the bakkie, which was in flames, away from the house and the other small car. "The bakkie was completely gutted,” he said. The other car was damaged by bullets being fired into it next to the petrol tank. Spent catridges were also found at the scene.

Malogo said throughout the incident he did not hear voices and did not see any person. “I have no clue of who might be behind this senseless attack. I am not aware of having enemies around here and all I can think of now is that jealousy could be the main reason of the attack. Somebody is not comfortable about my achievements and this is an attempt to pull me down. I can state clearly to whoever is involved that they are fighting a losing battle. I believe in God, who cannot fail, who saved his people from their enemies,” he said.

He said the bakkie was the source of his livelihood and burning it was like killing him. “The people who did this might think that I will starve, but they must just forget about it. God will take care of me. He will provide for us and He knows why it happened,” he said.

He said he was worried that the faceless attackers had not left any clue as to what they wanted. “I just hope the police will do their job and arrest the perpetrators before they come back and cause harm or continue with their criminal spree somewhere. We want them behind bars, so that we could have a safer environment. They do not deserve to live with people," he said.

In an unrelated incident, two lovers were shot at by three unknown men at Tshisahulu on Sunday morning. It is alleged the three arrived at a lodge and pretended that they wanted rooms, whereupon they produced guns and demanded money from the receptionist. According to the police, they ordered the receptionist to go to a certain room at the hotel. Once there, they ordered her to open the door, upon which they opened fire on the couple inside.

The two victims, a 35-year-old constable attached to the Thohoyandou police, who was on leave and pregnant, and her 22-year-old boyfriend, were seriously wounded and taken to the local hospital. They were airlifted to Polokwane Hospital soon afterwards. The constable later died of her injuries and her boyfriend is still fighting for his life.

Community leader Combrick Makhado said he was worried about the prevalence of crime in the village. “We had a crime awareness campaign with the Thohoyandou Station Commissioner just this weekend and then such crimes occur here. As a community, we are not going to sit down and do nothing. We will mobilize our communities and make them aware of the scourge of crime,” Makhado said.

"This is not an ordinary crime. Guns were used here, which could have resulted in the loss of life. We regard this case as very serious and we have to sit down and strategize as a community,“ he said.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Captain Mashudu Malelo confirmed the two incidents. He said the police were worried about the use of firearms in crimes. “In the incident at Tshisahulu, we have opened murder, malicious damage to property and business robbery cases, and in the Khubvi incident, we have opened an arson case."

Malelo said they were following strong leads and were hopeful that they would soon have a breakthrough.