A man who had allegedly tried to kill his ex-girlfriend by burning down the house she shared with her new boyfriend only just escaped with his life when he was rescued from an angry crowd at Khubvi Ethiopia by the Thohoyandou police on Sunday afternoon (25th).
The suspect's former girlfriend, Ms Phathutshedzo Netshitungulu, said he had arrived at the house of her boyfriend, Khakhathi Ntsundeni, carrying a burning primus stove. "He walked into the house and carried my bed and all me and my kids' clothes from the bedroom to the kitchen and started burning them, and the house caught fire. Neighbours saw the fire and came to help. He tried to run away, but they managed to catch him next to the local bridge and started assaulting him. The rest, who did not join in the chase after him, were busy trying to douse the fire at the house and managed to save the other two rooms."
According to Netshitungulu, the suspect, whom she claims to be an illegal immigrant from Lesotho, had been threatening to kill her for some time. "He once beat me and my mother badly, to an extent that my mother suffered a dislocated shoulder. His employer bribed us with R600 and, as we are poor, we accepted the money and did not open a case."
She said that, on Sunday morning, he had been looking for a shop to buy an okapi (knife) to kill her, but he could not find one in the area. After the suspect was caught by the angry residents, a family elder, Mr Avhashoni Munzhedzi, fortunately jumped to the suspect's rescue by cooling the crowd down until the police arrived and took him away.
The suspect, Karabo Mosehe, appeared in the Thohoyandou Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, 27 September. The case was postponed to 31 October 2022.