Chaos erupted in the Vhulaudzi area last week when community members barricaded roads and burned tyres. The local community members were protesting against the police's apparent failure to arrest a murder suspect.
The unhappiness stems from the suspect's failure to appear in the Thohoyandou High Court on a possible charge of murder. Dorobo Rodney Tshivhula (31) allegedly killed his girlfriend, Suzan Mabala, in March last year. He was released on bail and was supposed to appear in court last Monday (17th). According to community members, this was the second time that Tshivhula had failed to appear for a court hearing.
Mabala disappeared in March last year. Prior to her disappearance, she and her boyfriend, Tshivhula, had had a dispute concerning payment of maintenance for their five-year-old daughter. Mabala was never seen again and her disappearance left the village in turmoil. At that point, angry residents went on the rampage, burning down the local Vhulaudzi police station and two police vans.
After the unrest last year, the police were quick to act and arrested Tshivhula. He later pointed out the scene where the body of presumably a woman was found. The police sent DNA samples away for testing, but after six months the results came back indicating that no match was found with the five-year-old daughter.
Tshivhula's case was postponed on several occasions and he was granted bail, which was apparently revoked later. When he again failed to turn up on court last Monday, emotions in the community started to run high. On Tuesday, the community barricaded the Witvlag road from Murunwa to Phadzima. The protestors used road signs and stones to block access and set alight logs and tyres. The protest action continued until Thursday and the primary and secondary schools in the area were also closed.
Ms Monica Bugana, a spokesperson for the family, said that they were not happy with the manner in which the police were handling the case. "The police are not willing to re-arrest the suspect, who failed twice to appear in court, on 27 August and on Monday, 17 September," she said. The family members are also unhappy that the magistrate told them to go home without telling them the date of the next court appearance.
The mother of the missing woman had apparently had a heart attack and died because of the trauma of the incident. Bugana blamed the police for the whole fiasco, saying that, had they listened to the suspect's family, things would not have gone that far. "We gave the police the (address of the) place where the suspect was hiding in Tzaneen," she said.
Police spokesperson Lt-Col Moatshe Ngoepe said that a warrant of arrest had been issued. He said that the area was calm at the time of our going to press. Ngoepe said that the police would spare no effort in the war against crime. "We will work together with the community, civic organisations and other community stakeholders, until we defeat crime. We are going to work on the information and hope something positive is going to come out of this," he said.