Pretoria - Fuming residents of Itireleng informal settlement near Laudium gathered in vast numbers outside the Laudium police station on Sunday, demanding the release of three suspects linked to the alleged murder of an elderly woman.
This followed an incident two weeks ago when an 8-year-old boy from the Itireleng informal settlement went missing.
His body was later found mutilated and dumped behind a mosque. The boy’s eyes had been gouged out, and his hand and nose cut off.
This angered residents, who stoned and vandalised a school attached to the mosque, claiming foreign nationals were behind the murder. The foreigners fled.
The angry residents did not stop there. A source who didn’t want to be named told the Pretoria News that the residents of Itireleng then consulted a traditional healer to point out the murderer of the boy.
“We contributed money as a community to go and see a traditional healer in Hammanskraal, so she could tell us who did this to the poor boy.”
It is alleged that the traditional healer in Hammanskraal told the community that a foreign traditional healer residing in their informal settlement had mutilated the boy for magic purposes. “We had our suspicions that it was a sacrificial killing because of the way the body was dissected and dismembered,” said the source.
Following the revelation on the alleged murderer, the community began looking for suspects based on the information they received.
“We finally found out who it was. This foreign couple had always been suspected for their devious ways.”
The foreign couple were confronted by the Itireleng community on Saturday night. The husband, who is a traditional healer, was not home when residents went to their shack. So the community members beat the wife to a pulp demanding she tell them the whereabouts of her husband. “She was crying and said she didn’t know.”
Realising that she was not going to tell them where her husband is, the wife was forced to drink petrol and was necklaced with a tyre before being set alight.
The livid residents then left her burnt body in an open field near the informal settlement.
Captain Louise Steynberg confirmed that three male suspects between the ages of 18 and 24 had been arrested in connection with the woman’s death and have been charged with public violence.
Livid residents of the Itireleng informal settlement took to the streets on Sunday and marched to the Laudium police station demanding that the three suspects be released.
“If the police are going to arrest anyone it should be the whole community, because we all did this, not just the three guys. We demand they be set free,” said Mpho Sidebe, a resident from Itireleng.
Police from the Laudium police station called for back-up from surrounding police stations to keep order. “We need as much help as we can in case things get out of control,” said Steynberg.
After much interrogation and negotiation the police agreed to release the three suspects.
“It sets a bad precedent. We cannot be bullied like this. People must respect the police force and their rules and regulations. Now people are going to mobilise every time a crime is committed,” she said.
Pretoria News