Concert brings an end to hostel killings
Just one month after the Gauteng and the KZN Departments of Safety jointly hosted a Peace Music Festival at the Katlehong Stadium in October, to mark the end of tribal faction killings between hostel dwellers, the police in Thokoza, say there has been a dramatic decline in tribal faction murders at the hostels around the township in the area.
Speaking to Kathorus MAIL, Const Mashiyane, the media spokesperson for the Thokoza SAPS, described the sudden drop in hostel killings in the township since the “peace festival” in October, as a “highly encouraging” development in the police’s fight against crime in the area.
Mashiyane ascribed the “lull” in hostel killings to the success of the concert, which was well attended and supported by hundreds of hostel dwellers from different parts of Gauteng and some areas of KZN.
“The fact that there has been no similar killings reported since the music festival, means the police have managed to achieve their objective to bring peace to the different warring factions,” he said.
This, said Mashiyane, is a significant achievement for the police in bringing peace among hostel dwellers in an area that is notorious for its history of violent political blood-letting which left hundreds dead and maimed in the 1990’s.
Because of this, and despite efforts to rehabilitate the hostels, many of them around Thokoza are still regarded as “hubs” for different types of dubious activities, including drugs and tribal faction fights among others.
According to Mashiyane, tribal faction murder cases are the most difficult to investigate and solve.
“While most of these hostel killings may take place at different local hostels around Kathorus and other parts of Gauteng, usually, the source of the conflict is often traced back to domestic, tribal, or worse still, even spousal rivalry between suitors from different rural areas around KZN.
“Different methods are also used to dispose of rivals in these fights, and it up to the investigating detectives and his police experience to determine the methods used and to investigate the case accordingly until its final conclusion when the culprit or culprits are arrested and sentenced in court,” Mashiyane explained without giving details.
Most of these murders are actually personal or family grudges between two or more people from the same, or even a different place in the rural areas.
“The fights are usually tribal or clan-based disputes and most of those involved often prefer to keep the police out of the dispute.
“To them, it is always a matter of an eye for an eye, or something like, you kill one of us, we kill one of you,”explained Mashiyane, who admitted that the recently achieved peace process took well over three years to finalise.
As the Thokoza SAPS hold their breath for the recently celebrated peace deal to hold, Mashiyane said the worse that could happen at this stage would be if each side reneged on the common goal to see peace reign among Kathorus hostel dwellers.
“It is also important for us as the police to continue to monitor the situation to make sure that the killings no longer continue and that people’s lives are safe again,” said Mashiyane.
