Stop killing us like dogs!

"We want the missing parts" and "Stop killing us like dogs" are two of the slogans on the placards demonstrators displayed on Wednesday when suspected ritual murderer Freddy Azwitamisi Tshikhudo (38) appeared in the Louis Trichardt Magistrate's Court.

The local Zimbabwean community showed their utter disgust with the happenings the past month. News broke the past week that the woman, who had been killed and mutilated, was 36-year-old Rumbidzai Mayere from Zimbabwe. Limpopo Mirror previously reported on the disappearance of this Zimbabwean lady who had stayed in Tshikota. When reporting on the killing and mutilation of an unknown woman last week, the police were asked whether there was any link between the two cases. The family of the missing woman were also contacted to ask them to investigate such a possibility. It eventually turned out that it was the same person.

Freddy Tshikhudo, the suspect in the case, appeared in court on Wednesday for a bail application, but the matter was placed on hold until 29 May. The court and the defence for the accused agreed that the case be postponed after the State prosecutor pointed out that they were still awaiting the post-mortem results. "The State suspects that there might be more parts missing from the deceased's body, and not only the arm," said the prosecutor.

As was reported in the Limpopo Mirror last week, Tshikhudo apparently entered Elti Café in Eltivillas with the intension of robbing the Indian couple, Hasina Muska Patel (60) and Musha Isap Ali Patel (62) on 5 April. The couple were interviewed on Tuesday by a reporter from the Zoutpansberger, sister paper of the Limpopo Mirror. The still traumatized couple told the reporter more of what had happened that day.

Only Mrs Patel was in the small shop when Tshikhudo arrived. He pulled out the arm and tried to scare the old lady when she didn't want to hand over the money immediately. It appears that the language barrier caused more confusion, because the old lady was scared and couldn't understand what the attacker wanted. At the same time a watchful security guard from across the road realised that something was wrong at the shop. He went to help the old lady and overpowered the attacker. Mr Patel, who at that stage was attending mosque, was called and he ran back to the shop.

It appears, however, that things went awry after the police were alerted and arrived on the scene. Tshikhudo told the police that the Patel couple had requested him to supply them with a human hand and agreed to pay him R70 000 and give him a motor vehicle. The hand was, allegedly, to be used for muti purposes.

The police arrested both Tshikhudo and the Patel couple. On 6 April (Saturday) Tshikhudo led the police to the dense bushes at the mountain at the upper side of Songozwi Street, where a decomposing female body was discovered without the arm, private parts and both eyes.

Tshikhudo and the Patel couple appeared in the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court on 15 April and the case was postponed to a further date. The following day, however, Tshikhudo had made startling confessions to the police, which absolved Hasina Muska Patel and Musha Isap Ali Patel of having taken part in the killing of the woman. Charges against Mr and Mrs Patel were dropped when they appeared in court on 10 April (Wednesday).

The Patel couple's shop was still closed earlier this week and they say that they are too afraid to do business again. They are also still recovering from the ordeal. According to a family spokesperson, Mr Nasir Driver, they spent six days behind bars. During this time they were held in separate cells and did not eat. Hasina just drank black tea while Ali survived by drinking only tap water.

Tshikhudo had initially misinformed the police that the decomposing body which was found in the bushes was that of an Asian woman whom he had killed for muti, after the woman’s boyfriend had hired him to do so.

The family of Ms Mayere this week said that the police had informed them that they had found a decomposing body in the bushes. “They said there was a bowl of peanuts with some peanuts scattered around her corpse and, as we listened to them, everything related to our child Rumbidzai who went missing while going to town to sell peanuts,” said Mayere's aunt Ms Evelyn Munyanyiwa. “What happened is not good at all. We are putting all our hope in the hands of the police and God.”

Also read:

06 June 2013 - Muti murder accused stays in custody

Date:19 April 2013

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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