Pretoria - Four people, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed in separate incidents in Limpopo.
In the first incident, the girl from Mookgopong near Naboomspruit was killed last Thursday. A 29-year-old woman was also killed at at Mapayeni village outside Giyani on Friday.
The two killings were followed by mob killings of two men, allegedly suspected of being responsible for the two murders.
Speaking to the Pretoria News yesterday, provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo confirmed the killings.
He said: “On Thursday night September 23, the body of a 14-year-old-girl, identified as Palesa Mosoloke, was found inside a shack at Extension 8 informal settlement.
“The body did not have any visible injuries and it is suspected she might have been strangled. Police are also investigating the possibility that the child might have been raped.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the shack was rented by a foreign national only known as Mhlongo who has since disappeared.”
He said the police were still busy with investigations when they received information about a Swazi national who was found assaulted with stones, and his body set alight on Saturday at about 12:45am.
The victim later succumbed to the injuries on arrival at the hospital. Preliminary investigation indicated that the victim was suspected by community members of being involved in the rape and murder of Palesa.
In another incident on Friday, the body of a 29-year-old woman was found by community members lying on the street at Mapayeni village.
Mojapelo said: “Police who were on patrol duties were called and they attended to the scene. Preliminary investigations revealed that the dead woman, identified as Tiyiselani Precious Rikhotso, was hacked and stabbed to death by an unknown suspect while walking to the nearby store on September 24. The suspect then fled the scene.
“The next day at about 7.25am, the community members from the same village reportedly suspected a certain man, hunted him down and found him in a certain house where they killed him.”
Police investigations are ongoing.
Provincial SAPS commissioner General Thembi Hadebe, condemned the murders.
“The killings of a 14-year-old girl at Mookgopong and a woman in Giyani are extremely deplorable as the country is engaged in the rigorous fight against gender-based violence. 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,” he said.
“Community members must desist from taking the law into their own hands and instead work with the police by providing information that can assist in apprehending the suspects.”
Pretoria News