BREAKING: Shots fired in Mataffin during land dispute
Police were called after shots were fired and a 25-year-old man was brutally assaulted over a land dispute at Mataffin.
MBOMBELA – According to an eyewitness at the scene near Blessing Crèche today, gunshots were heard and people were running down a dirt road.
There had been a dispute with community members and people allegedly selling stands illegally in the area. After an argument happened, three men attacked a man with pangas.
The man was taken to Rob Ferreira Hospital in a critical condition by family members. One of the family members said, “We called 10111 for the police and an ambulance, but the ambulance never came so we rushed him here ourselves. The community is tired of these perpertrators.”
Lt Col Erhard Stroh said the police’s flying squad had been sent to the area.
Last year the City of Mbombela requested the police to apprehend a group, who had allegedly been selling stands illegally since 2014 for up to R10 000 each.
The owner of the land in question is Matsafeni Trust. It won the R10-million property from HL Halls & Sons in a land-restitution settlement in 2003.
