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Cornelia Ndhlovu was stabbed in the palm and she is now afraid to walk home after leaving work at 19:00.

Two Shoprite workers get mugged after work at night

 

Two women, Ms Rudzani Ligavha and Ms Cornelia Ndhlovu, escaped death by a whisker when they were attacked and mugged on their way from work in Louis Trichardt last Saturday (14th).

The two are residents of Madombidzha village and workers at Shoprite in Louis Trichardt. As usual, they had left work at 19:00 and were walking along Krogh Street in a southerly direction. At around 19:30, when they were walking past the Shell garage, on the opposite side of the road, three men approached them.

“One of them grabbed me by folding his arm around me, so that I could not run away,” Ms Ligavha said. “My co-worker screamed at them, telling them to leave me alone, but the two of them turned to her.”

The thugs started grabbing Ndhlovu's handbag and plastic bags containing bread for her four children. She did not give in and this so angered the thugs that one of them told the other to stab her. “On the spur of the moment, he stabbed me with a sharp object in the palm and the object pierced through to the other side of the hand,” she said. “I was in such shock and in excruciating pain that I gave up fighting. They took all my bags.”

Meanwhile, the attackers also ran away with Ligavha's handbag and a plastic bag. “The attack took place on my husband’s birthday, and one of the plastic bags contained some birthday presents that I had bought for him.”

Ligavha's handbag also contained her smart phone, bank cards and shopping cards, and other personal items. “Our lives are not safe at all,” she said. “We knock off late when there is no transport available at the taxi ranks and all the buses have left.”

Ndhlovu added that she was afraid of losing her life and that she would not be able to raise her children. “I love my four children and they are the reason why I am working,” she said. “We are now afraid to walk to the hitchhike spot after work.”

So far, the victims have not opened a criminal case.

The second deputy president of SACCAWU, Mr Mike Tau, said that the union was concerned about incidents such as these where workers became targets of criminals. “As we speak now, we are engaged with Shoprite/Checkers management here in Cape Town,” he said. “The safety of workers can’t be compromised. We need the employer to provide safe transport for all workers when they knock off late, so that they are not raped and killed by criminals.”

Ms Rudzani Ligavha was mugged on her way from work.

Ms Cornelia Ndhlovu was stabbed.

The stabbed palm.

 

Date:30 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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