Disabled community builder and prominent businesswoman Lydia Nemafhohoni says she is not shaken by a series of threatening phone calls she has received.
Nemafhohoni, an award-winning entrepreneur from Pile in Mutale and chairperson of the Faranani Disability People Agricultural Primary Co-operative, said she was at home on Sunday when the calls came through. The co-operative, which she founded in 2004, focuses on community farming in Pile village.
"It was around 12:11 and I was relaxing and watching TV at home when a call came through. It was a man who identified himself as Thulani from Pretoria. He was speaking in heavy Zulu accent and I told him I did not understand Zulu and he told me he would try my language as he could master a little bit of Tshivenda. He told me he was hired by three councillors, two men and a woman, to assassinate her and that a price tag of R30,000 has been put on my head," she said.
According to Nemafhohoni, the caller did not give any reason why the three councillors would want her dead.
"I told him in his face to carry out what he was paid for. I shared the number with a close friend, who called him. Upon picking up the call and realising it was a man, he dropped the call. He has not called again. I believe it is a well-calculated scam where I was expected to pay a counter amount to save my life. I am not perturbed and will never fall for such scams. As far as I know, I do not have enemies and if there is one, I do not know. I will not pay any protection fee. I have one protector, who is God who will protect me. I did not open a case but only made an alert to the local Mutale police," Nemafhohoni said.