Road to Maniini is “a shortcut to your death”

The path is the shortest to Maniini village, but residents have named it the shortcut to death.

This comes after two people were recently killed passing through the bushes next to the Thohoyandou Stadium.

One man was killed towards the end of last year in what is believed to be a robbery gone wrong. The latest victim was killed on Tuesday afternoon in the same bushes.

His identity and age are not yet known and several stab wounds were visible on his bloodied body. His shirt was soaked in blood and he seemed to have been stabbed some metres away from where his body was found.

A herder who tends cattle in the bushes said there had been many acts of robbery in those bushes and that there were gangs of criminals who lay in wait for potential victims to mug. "This is a very dangerous area. I am working here because I have no option. Every day I see these guys hiding in the bushes, and I just feel that they will one day come for me. Last year, a man was killed here and this path has become very dangerous to pass alone. People are forced to use it as they do not have money to board taxis," he said.

Mr Solomon Mavhetha, a long-time resident of Maniini, said the only way people would be safe would be when the municipality demarcated the area for residential sites. "We are not safe here. This is fertile ground for thugs to hide in these bushes. If it could be demarcated for sites, there would be no more criminals here," said Mavhetha.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Avhafarei Tshiovhe said they had opened a murder case. "The victim is unknown and, for now, no one knows how he was killed or how he ended up there, but our investigations will hopefully reveal the circumstances of his death and the killers," she said.

She urged those with information to please furnish it to the police, so that they would be able to crack the case.

Date:23 January 2015

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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