Police arrested 62 people in Limpopo at the weekend after a shebeen owner killed two people and her husband was murdered in a revenge attack.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ronel Otto said violence erupted when the shebeen's owner refused to sell alcohol to minors in Nsako Village, Letsitele.
“Residents went to the tavern and demanded that she also sell liquor to minor children but she refused.”
Otto said residents assaulted her and started pelting the tavern with stones, smashing its windows.
“(The owner) took her licensed 9mm pistol and fired shots into the crowd, killing two women,” she said.
“Four others were wounded – three women and a six-year-old boy. The boy was shot in both legs.”
On Sunday, the owner's 58-year-old husband went to the tavern to fetch the remaining stock.
“Members of the community noticed him and mobilised again,” said Otto.
“They assaulted him with sticks and stones until he died. His body as well as his vehicle were set alight.”
She said police arrested 61 people, including 19 minors, for public violence, malicious damage to property, assault and murder. They would appear in the Tzaneen's Magistrate Court on June 20.
The children had been released into their parents' custody.
Otto said all the injured were being treated in a local hospital. They included the shebeen owner, who had also been arrested and was under police guard.
On her discharge from hospital, she would face two murder charges and four of attempted murder. – Sapa