Polokwane - Limpopo police commissioner Lt-Gen Nneke Ledwaba has condemned yet another apparent mob justice incident in the province in which three men were killed at Ga-Wally village in Mokwakwaila, just outside Tzaneen, in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Preliminary police investigations revealed that the brutal attack followed a chain of events starting at about midnight when an intruder allegedly broke in to the home of an elderly woman, Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said.
The woman reportedly screamed for help and community members in the village consequently mobilised and hunted down the intruder until they caught three unknown middle-aged men.
"After accusing them of being responsible for house robberies in the area, the three were then brutally assaulted with [an] assortment of objects. The police reacted to the frantic calls emanating from the area, but on arrival they were met by gruesome scenes of [a] blood-spattered area and three badly assaulted people lying dead. The crowd had, at this stage, already dispersed," Mojapelo said.
Tzaneen policing cluster commander Maj-Gen Maggy Mathebula visited the scene and immediately mobilised all relevant police resources, while Ledwaba had ordered an immediate investigation into this mob justice incident and that all those responsible be arrested as a matter of urgency, Mojapelo said.
“The police will be merciless in dealing with any people who take the law into their own hands by attacking people they suspect of being criminals. Community members are urged to desist from these attacks and should instead call the police to effect arrests,” Ledwaba said.
Anyone with information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects involved in this matter was requested to contact Colonel Cecil Machimane at 082-451-7181, or the crime stop number 08600-10111 or crime line sms number 32211, or the nearest police station.