Teenager, woman murdered: Limpopo residents take the law into their own hands
A 14-year-old girl was strangled to death and a woman (29) was stabbed in separate incidents this past week in Limpopo.
LIMPOPO – The provincial police commissioner, Lt Genl Thembi Hadebe has condemned two separate gender-based violence attacks which occurred in the Mookgophong and Giyani areas this past week. A 14-year-old girl from Mookgophong was strangled to death while a woman (29) from Giyani was fatally stabbed. Subsequently the people held responsible for the separate attacks were hunted down and brutally killed.
The first incident happened on Thursday (September 23) in the Mookgopong police area after the body Palesa Mosoloke was discovered inside a shack at Extension 8 informal settlement.
Police spokesperson Brig Motlafela Mojapelo said her body had no visible injuries and it is presumed she was possible raped and then strangled to death. Preliminary investigations at the time revealed that the shack was rented by a foreign national and manhunt for the man ensued, he said
“The police where still busy with their investigations on Saturday morning when they received information about a foreign national who had been severely assaulted and set alight during a mob justice attack.
“The man succumbed to his injuries shortly after the attack. Preliminary investigation at the time indicated that he had been accused of being involved in the rape and murder of Mosoloke, ” Mojapelo explained.
In a separate incident in the Giyani policing area, a man was killed after he was accused of the murder of a 29-year-old woman from Mapayeni village.
Mojapelo said the woman’s body was found lying in the street on Friday evening at around 20:25.
“The police attended to the scene and preliminary investigations revealed that Tiyiselani Precious Rikhotso was walking to a nearby store when she was attacked and brutally stabbed to death. A case of murder was opened.”
The next morning the police received a report of a man who was killed during a mob justice attack. “It is alleged that residents from the community had accused the man of Rikhotso’s murder, had hunted him down and killed him.”
Hadebe called the brutal killing of the two victims “extremely deplorable” and condemned the subsequent mob justice incidents. “The brutal killings of the two men, apparently suspected of being responsible for the two murders, is equally condemned as these incidents are tantamount to vigilantism,” she said.
She added that the public must desist from taking the law into their own hands and must instead work with the police and provide information that can lead to the suspect’s apprehension.
Anyone with information about these incidents can contact the 24-hour Crime Stop number on 086 001 0111 or their nearest police station. “Alternatively they can contact the investigating officers; in Mookgophong contact Captain Kekana on 082 565 8299 and Col Mamphage on 082 565 7877 in Giyani.”
Police investigations in both incidents still continue, Mojapleo concluded.
