Five houses destroyed as Lwamondo youth go on the rampage

Ugly scenes played out at Lwamondo outside Thohoyandou during the past week, when angry youths went on the rampage by blockading roads with burning tyres and any big objects they could lay their hands on. They also burnt five houses suspected to belong to crime busters in the area.

The arsonists accused these people of being behind the alleged ritual murder of Dakalo Bulannga (23) of Lwamondo Khumbe. Bulannga went missing on 2 July this year after being accused of robbery by the crime busters in the village. He was later brought back home to retrieve a phone he was suspected of stealing and they then left with him, but he was never seen again.

He was found on 14 July, almost two weeks after his disappearance, hanging at the back of a house belonging to a local traditional leader. His death sparked violent protest, which left a trail of destruction in its wake. Five houses were burnt down in the process.

Starting from Saturday last week, the first day of the violent protest, Lwamondo has been a no-go area, with traffic on the R554 from Louis Trichardt and Thohoyandou having to make long detours via the Nzhelele and the Vuwani area as sporadic stoning of passing cars took place and roads were blocked.

Tshimangadzo Tshikhovhokhovho, whose parents’ 12-roomed house burnt to the ground, said she blamed the police for the burning of her parents’ home. “I heard about the threats the previous day. I visited my parents the following day to find out about the situation and found that nothing was happening. My parents left to do some shopping in Thohoyandou, but immediately after their departure I heard that people were burning houses not far from our house. I phoned my parents, who reported the matter to the police, but nothing was done to protect our house. The mob, who were using a loud hailer to direct the protestors, came to our house and burnt it to ashes, with nothing saved from it,” she said.

She said she saw everything when a man from the mob poured petrol into the sitting room of their house and lit a match. Meanwhile, the father of the dead man, Mr Thivhulawi Bulannga, said the family had more questions than answers about the disappearance and subsequent killing of his son. “The crime busters owe me answers as to what had happened to my son. They came here and took him away, came back with him to collect a phone and that was the last time he was seen alive."

He asked why they had not taken him to the police station if he had done something wrong. "We are not against them as crime busters, but they have to explain my son’s killing,” he said. The dead man's aunt, Ms Christina Masithi, said she saw the body, which had some parts missing. "We are very concerned that the boy might have been ritually murdered as some of his parts were missing. These people must account for everything as they are the ones who took him away from home," she said.

The local senior local traditional leader, Thovhele Calvin Nelwamondo, called for calm and urged the community to give the police a chance to work on the case.

The Vuwani police's spokesperson, Constable Ntsundeni Mungadi, confirmed the incident and said they had opened a public-violence docket. “We are investigating and we believe that, with the assistance of our community, we will make arrests soon,” she said.

At the time of our going to press, the situation had returned to normal in the area.

Date:27 July 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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