UPDATE: Police condemn mob justice
This morning the community burnt a 36-year-old local pastor and his 24-year-old nephew whom they suspected of killing the girls.
Police’s preliminary investigations suggest that one of the children, Silindile (6) and her sister Nontokozo (5) who died yesterday, was raped before being killed.
Brig Leonard Hlathi said, “Emanating from the discovery of the two bodies of the girls who went missing a day before yesterday, we have done a preliminary investigation which indicates that one of girls was raped. We will continue with our investigations even though the two men suspected by the community for this have died,” he said.
This morning the community burnt a 36-year-old local pastor and his 24-year-old nephew whom they suspected of killing the girls. The community said a sangoma whom they consulted yesterday indicated the two were the culprits.
Read: Two men burned alive in Mganduzweni mob justice attack
Mpumalanga News learnt that the community then went to search for the two who allegedly confessed to killing the girls.
“Blood stains, mattresses, linens and a bowl filled with blood was found in the pastor’s house,” they said. All this was apparently burnt when the community burnt the pastor and his nephew at around 02:00 today.
Hlathi also condemned the community’s act of the taking the law into their hands. “We talked to the community yesterday vehemently regarding the issue of taking the law into their hands that they must not do that because it will hamper the process of the investigation.”
Hlathi said the police had opened another case of murder.
“We are not going to rest, we are all and about searching for those responsible for the first and second issue because they must face the law,” said Hlathi.
