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Intruders broke all doors advancing towards the inhabitants during the attack.

Makumeke family still afraid to return home

 

A victim of a night attack more than a year ago is still waiting for the slow wheels of justice to start moving. Ms Musandiwa Makumbani told Limpopo Mirror that the police officer who was investigating her case had since closed the case without even consulting with her.

“I got the shock of my life when I called him inquiring whether the police had made any arrests, since I supplied them with the names of suspects,” she said. “That was early in January this year, and he told me that he had closed the case upon my instruction,” she said, but emphasized that she never gave any such instruction.

The Makumbani family, who were attacked by “well-known men” on the night of 1 March last year at Makumeke village near Nandoni Dam, had not returned to their big house worth over a million of rands in the village they so loved. They are still living at a friend’s house at a distant village, still fearing for their lives.

“It’s not even imaginable for me, my daughter and my husband to return to our own home,” she said. “Those people meant to kill us that night. The investigating officer knows some of the suspects and where they spend their time every day.”

In an attack which resembled a scene from a thriller movie, intruders broke down doors, smashed windows and entered the Makumbani familie’s house in the middle of the night. According to the victims, the intruders were not targeting any movable items or monies. After fending off the attackers, the family manage to run away to safety.

At some stage last year, the provincial police intervened and gave directives to senior police officials to oversee the matter and ensure that the case was properly investigated. However, almost a year later, the case was closed and the affected victims continued to live at a place of safety.

When contacted for comment, the provincial police’s spokesperson Lt-Col Moatshe Ngoepe said that the victim should compile a written complaint and submit it to the office of the provincial police’s complaints coordinators.

Makumbani said she cannot compile a written complaint and she can also not afford to travel to the complaints coordinators’ offices in Polokwane. An official from the complaints coordinators contacted her and promised that the case would be further investigated.

Ms Musandiwa Makumbani looks at the window which was smashed on the night of the vicious attack in her home.

A victim of night attack, Ms Musandiwa Makumbani, holds a handhoe which intruders used to hack her back.

 

Date:15 April 2018

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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