The investigating officer, Constable Malesela Kekana, and a fellow detective from Carletonville, Const. Thabo Kharejane were called to investigate charges of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm (GBH) and malicious damage to property at a house in Blyvoor’s New Village on the night of 23 August. A man who lived in the house had opened a case after a group of people set the backroom alight and broke several windows. After rounding up the perpetrators, however, the police found that there was more to the incident than met the eye. “These people admitted to damaging the house, but said the complainant and a fellow resident had been terrorising the community for some time,” says Kekana. A man who was involved in damaging the house confessed that one of the two had pulled out a knife as they approached him. He had been walking home earlier that day. After one of them tried to stab him in the arm with a knife, the other struck his forehead with a stick. He was able to flee and fetch his friends, who went to the attackers’ house with him. After the two detectives arrested the men from the house, several other victims came forward to share their stories. “I think these community members were previously too afraid to report the cases,” says Kekana. By Tuesday afternoon, the two men had already been linked to three more cases. The police were still expecting more victims to come forward as the word of their arrest spread. The two Lesotho nationals, aged 18 and 29 years old respectively, had already appeared in court on Tuesday, 25 August.
