Two community members have been arrested for the alleged murder of two foreign nationals who were severely beaten for allegedly stealing cables. File Picture: Brenton Geach
Pretoria – Two suspects, aged 38 and 41, have been arrested for the alleged murder of two foreign nationals in Mozombane village in the Mahwelereng policing precinct.
According to said Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo the police in Mahwelereng conducted an intelligence-driven operation at about 4pm (on Good Friday) after an incident of vigilantism in the village on Monday.
The victims were attacked by community members at about 10.30pm. They accused them of stealing copper cables in the area, Mojapelo said.
“The victims were severely assaulted, until they succumbed to their injuries,” he said.
Limpopo police commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembi Hadebe has welcomed the arrest of the two suspects, and warned communities against taking the law into their own hands.
“As the police in the province continue to fight this scourge of vigilantism and mob activism where people take the law into their own hands, the arrest of the two suspects is commendable.
“This will send a clear message that the police will be relentless in their resolve to bring the perpetrators to book,” said Hadebe.
“All the perpetrators involved in this vigilante incident must hand themselves over to the police,” she said, adding that the hunt for the remaining suspects was continuing.
∎ Last week, a 37-year-old woman, believed to be a loan shark, was brutally killed at Salema village in Limpopo’s Saselamani policing precinct last Monday night.
The police received a complaint at about 10pm that a vigilante incident was taking place the Salema village, in which a mob intended to burn the house of a 37-year-old woman, believed to have been a money lender.
The police went to the scene and discovered that the mob had tied the victim to her car and dragged her to the bushes.
IOL