Ninety youths have been arrested in Giyani and one boy is dead after 39 houses were torched in what appeared to be a witch-hunt, Limpopo police said.
”The 39 houses were burnt to ashes,” said Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe.
”Those people lost everything — food, blankets, their children’s school uniforms and school books — everything,” he said.
The ”rampaging”, which Ngoepe said shocked police, began at midnight on Wednesday.
Until the arrests, the youths burnt houses in Mkomo, Homu Block 14a and 14b, and Ngove, all outside Giyani, north-east of the provincial capital, Polokwane.
”They told them, ‘You are a witch’,” said Ngoepe. The victims included traditional healers, church pastors and traditional leaders.
”We are not saying for certain it was witchcraft-related — we still want to confirm it, but now we cannot exclude it,” he said.
At one house, youths opened fire on the police who had arrived to stop them.
The police returned fire and in the crossfire, 20-year-old Solly Mathebula was killed.
Police spent the past few days rounding up implicated youths and by Friday afternoon had arrested 90, who will appear in the Giyani Magistrate’s Court. Arrests were to continue throughout Friday.
The area’s disaster management was activated and the displaced families are being housed in tents and living on food parcels.
Two police task teams have been set up to deal with the incident.
A police unit trained to quell unrest will monitor the area, while a second team of detectives will investigate the sequence of events.
A ”priority committee” will also be formed.
”We are so disturbed about this to the extent of saying that it must stop here. We thought this kind of thing was in the past,” said Ngoepe.
”I appeal to the community to deal with problems through the relevant channels, rather than destruct other people’s property.”
He said the police will ”hit hard” and oppose bail on Monday as a deterrent to others. — Sapa