Angry community set alight house of former councillor

Angry community members at Masakona Manashi village outside Louis Trichardt have once again torched the house of a former councillor. This is the second time that Mr Thomas Munyai (55) has faced the wrath of the community.

He was first targeted when angry residents of the village accused him of behind the move to include them in a new municipality that will merge parts of Vuwani and Malamulele, a move they were against.

In the first incident, which took place on 4 March, his spaza shop with all its contents were gutted in a fire. Munyai was not dettered and he picked up the pieces and refurbished his shop and it was running again.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, angry community members again torched his spaza shop, but this time they also burnt down two houses, a nine-roomed and a three-roomed house in the yard. Nothing was saved in the latest incident and Munyai and his family were left only with the clothing they were wearing.

The latest accusation labelled against him is that he assisted the IEC staff to enter the village after the community had blocked the entrances, allegations he flatly denies. Munyai estimates the damage to be around R1million.

Munyai said he was at home with his family when he received a tip-off that a mob would come and kill him and set his property alight. "I notified the police, who came and gave us an escort. Just a few metres from my house, we met a big mob approaching my house. It was mostly young people who pelted the vehicles with different objects, after realising police were escorting me. While at the police station, we saw a big flame and we knew it was our house. I only returned home the following day to find the whole house gutted."

Munyai is blaming the local leadership "for inciting residents against him." He said it was part of a planned campaign against him. He further indicated that he had the support of the villagers who had realised that they were being used for an agenda known only to the leaders. "You can see these cars here and people, they are here to give me support and I appreciate this," he said.

He said he opened a case in the first incident and the second one and hoped that the police would make a breakthrough soon. Limpopo police spokesperson Col Ronel Otto said they had arrested eight people for public violence but added that they had not arrested anybody in connection with the arson incident at Munyai's place.

Date:15 April 2016

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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