"I'm not scared, I'm even ready to die"

A Home Affairs official residing in Makhado (Louis Trichardt), Vhamusanda Vho-Maanda Themeli, spoke out for the first time after he had been receiving numerous death threats since around 2011.

The latest incidence of a threat took place on Saturday morning when he discovered a threatening note thrown into his yard. When I woke up on Saturday morning, I found an A4 page with a threatening message printed on it in bold, black lettering,” he said. “I am not scared - in fact, I am even ready to die.”

The note had the words (verbatim and unedited): “Vhakhovhonwa Vho Themeli. Khavhalitshe rine rishumele vhana vhashu vhalitshe urisala murahu and your days are numberd (sic). Vhufogisihavho vhudovhavhulahisa. Ridivha movement yavho yothe. Nndaa. Vhadofasammbwa.”

The note can be loosely translated as follows: “You are being watched. Stop interfering with us because we are working for our children. Your days are numbered. Your spying will get you killed. We know all your movements. Ndaa (A Tshivenda masculine mode of greeting or acknowledgement). You will die like a dog.”

On December 2013, Themeli was deployed at the Beit Bridge border post. He alleges that he got numerous anonymous calls, warning him to stop spying or else he would get killed.

“I am not afraid of these threats. When I go to work, I tell myself that I am going to work for myself and my family,” he said. “I go to Home Affairs' offices to serve my country through my contribution as an official.”

On 2012, a carcass of a dog was thrown into his yard, which also suggested that those who had done that were telling him that he would die like a dog. “I reported the matter to the police at the time,” he said. “I won't allow anybody to threaten me. And I won't bow down to persecution.”

At one stage, his “persecutors” stole the keys of his car from his table at the Beit Bridge office, and he had to use a spare key, which was kept safely at home.

“I strongly believe that everyone's life belongs to God, who holds the power of death and life, and not just a mere human being who threatens another fellow human being,” he said.

Vho-Themeli said that he had reported Saturday's incident to the Makhado police. When contacted for comment, Const Tsietsi Lamola of Limpopo SAPS's Media Liaison Centre said that there was at this stage nothing tangile in their records to prove that Vho-Themeli's case had been registered at the police station.

Date:08 August 2014

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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