Mpumalanga police are on the hunt for six suspects who amputated the hands of a 30-year-old man and left him for dead.
Police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli said police and emergency medical services personnel were called to a bushy area around Kromdraai Road towards Witbank.
Mdhluli said according to information at their disposal, the 30-year-old man was accosted by a group of men who were driving a green Opel Corsa bakkie while he was walking on the road in the early hours of March 20, heading towards Extension 16 in Vosman near Witbank.
The victim informed police that the men pointed a firearm at him, then proceeded to grab and force him into the bakkie, where they then tied his hands and legs.
Police said although the man could not make out what they were saying, he was informed that the group informed him that they were going to kill him.
The men proceeded to drive with him into the bushes and upon arrival got out of the bakkie and then they started chopping off his hands before fleeing from the scene with them and leaving him for dead.
Mdhluli said police and medical personnel treated the man, and he remains in hospital for further medical treatment.
Police subsequently opened a case of attempted murder and are in pursuit of the suspects.
In light of the incident, Mpumalanga police have taken the opportunity to sensitise the public about unscrupulous individuals whose actions they have described as “evil”.
“Though the victim was not killed, the acts committed by the suspects are heartless and should be strongly condemned in the strongest possible way,” commented Mpumalanga police provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela.
Manamela vowed that the police would ensure that the perpetrators were hunted down and brought to book.
The Star