Man goes around burning people’s houses in Kanye
He is triggered by a dream to act this way, family complains
The Radipitse family in Kanye at Maisakamo ward experiences sleepless nights due to a young man who stands by their windows at night, vandalising and burning family property.
Narrating the family recurring ordeal to The Midweek Sun this week, 65-year-old pensioner, Mpho Radipitse expressed desire for the young man to stop burning their property and standing by their windows.
“The young man burns my property and then proceeds to his family’s house to set it on fire as well. He has already burnt down all of their houses, and his family members have had to move elsewhere,” she said.
She has decided to temporarily shut down the struggling shop she owned after the young man burnt it down and broke its windows by throwing stones. She has no money to care for her sick husband.
After burning Radipitse’s shop, the young man allegedly proceeded to their church and set fire to the storeroom containing church property, including over 200 chairs.
“His only excuse for burning and vandalising my property is that every time he sleeps, he dreams of my husband vigorously pulling his private parts. He even peeps through my bedroom windows,” Radipitse said.
Distressed, Radipitse stated that the young man burned all her business refrigerators, and she had intended to rent part of it out to someone.
However, this plan changed as the shop is now useless. “I am not even related to him. He just stays in the neighbourhood. He keeps vandalising and burning things. He often refers to us as rich people,” she said.
She has reported the young man to the police 15 times, but no action has been taken yet. Despite informing the Sejelo police that the young man is mentally deranged, they have not given her any feedback. “Ga re itseela tshwetso mo diatleng, tla bo gotwe re molato,” (we will be blamed for taking the law into our hands), the worried woman said. Another neighbour of the young man, 44 year-old Masego Otlogetswe, has no complaints about him, as he only throws stones but has never broken the windows of her rented house.
However, she noted that the young man never speaks to anyone. Other residents have told her that he grew up as a normal and responsible individual. The ward residents suspect that the young man might have been driven to ‘madness’ by drugs. Masego Kgalola, 87, revealed that the young man previously broke her windows. Despite reporting it to the police, he ended up buying glass to repair her house windows.
“We are in trouble; we often see stones thrown at our children. I do not know what the young man is going through, as he grew up as a normal person. He even burnt down their own family house and watched it burn to ashes, leaving only the house left by his great-grandparents,” Kgalola said.
The Midweek Sun could not trace the whereabouts of the young man, as their family home has been burned down and abandoned. When asked about the issue, Maisakamo Kgosana, Ketlaareng Wamabule Moisakamo, mentioned that although the complainants never reported the matter to him directly, he heard about it from other residents.
“I personally feel the police should intervene in the situation. If the boy is not mentally fit, he should be taken for rehabilitation because he destroys residents’ property, and he has nothing to compensate the residents,” the ward headman reasoned. Reached for comment, Sejelo Police Station Commander Mogomotsi Matlapeng refuted claims that Mpho Radipitse had reported the matter 15 times before them, but said they only had three different cases, which they long attended. “The complainant was assisted accordingly in all of the cases she reported,” he said.