Johannesburg - Gang violence is alleged to be at the centre of the deaths of two people and the brutal assault of two teenagers by the community of Khutsong in Carletonville.
One of the injured teenagers has been released from hospital and is in hiding as there has allegedly been talk that his attackers want to “finish him off”.
His family are also preparing to leave the area, alleging they heard that the people who attacked their son wanted to burn their shack.
Allegations are that all the attacks stem from a gang-related attack that saw a 29-year-old man stabbed to death at a tavern in Extension 3 last Friday.
Later that evening, *Nandi was asleep in her shack in the Chris Hani section when she heard people calling her name and saying her 16-year-old son *Ntando had been injured at a party.
Nandi rushed to the scene to find the community had stabbed Ntando five times.
He also had a wound across his neck.
“It looked as if they wanted to slit his throat,” she said. Ntando had been beaten up and dragged across the street onto the road where he was kicked.
“They left him thinking he was dead,” Nandi said.
Nandi said the story she later got was that her son had been attacked by people who wanted to avenge the death of the man who had been killed earlier that day in Extension 3.
Ntando has since been discharged from hospital but his attackers got wind of the news that he was still alive and have allegedly vowed to kill him. He is now in hiding.
When The Star visited the family on Wednesday, Nandi was busy packing and preparing to leave the area as well after threats were made against her.
Every little sound of people or cars made her jumpy.
“I hear that people now want to come and burn my shack,” she said.
Violence erupted again the day after Ntando was beaten up, resulting in the death of a 19-year-old man and the brutal attack on another teenager.
Allegations are that members of a gang from Chris Hani, who are alleged to have killed the 29- year-old man, were seen on the streets carrying weapons, shouting, whistling and making their way to Extension 3. However, the Extension 3 community was also approaching.
One of the residents who spoke on condition of anonymity said two police vehicles chased after the teenagers from Chris Hani.
The teenagers fled between the shacks.
As they faced the raging mob and the police, four allegedly handed themselves to the police.
The community is alleged to have captured two others and attacked them, beating them with pangas and pickaxes and everything they could lay their hands on.
The 35-year-old man said the police fired a warning shot to disperse the raging mob to stop them from killing the pair.
The shot, however, was ignored by the mob.
“As police tried to help this one, the community was busy attacking another on the other side,” the man said.
In the end, Sinethemba Bhelane, 19, was dead and another teen was badly wounded.
Police spokesman Captain Eddie Boboko confirmed Bhelane and the 29-year-old man’s deaths.
He said they had received information that there was a gang fight on Saturday and when they rushed there, they managed to save four people from the mob.
The Star