Teen bride killed in EC farm blitz

A TEENAGED bride was killed after an unknown number of gunmen attacked the homestead of an emerging farmer in the Mqhekezweni area near Mthatha on Tuesday.

Farmer Mbuzeli Mtshumpela, 48, was not at home during the attack, which took place at about 8pm at Manqabasheni village.

However, his daughter-in-law, Asanda Rhatshalala, 18, was killed.

His three daughters – aged 17, two years, and eight months – were home but escaped uninjured.

The area is not far from Xhwili village near Bhityi, where a number of homes have been attacked and people shot by unknown gunmen in the past few years.

In Tuesday’s incident, the attackers fired at Mtshumpela’s homestead using assault rifles and pistols. They also set two houses and his bakkie alight.

Villagers said it was not clear who the attackers were, while police said the motive for the attack was unknown and no arrests had been made.

On Wednesday evening, when the Daily Dispatch arrived at the scene of the shooting, Mtshumpela and his younger brother Xolani were collecting livestock as darkness approached.

The village does not have electricity.

The burnt Toyota Hilux bakkie was still in front of the rondavel where the young woman had been shot and killed at close range.

Both men said they had been left traumatised by the incident.

“The gunmen apparently thought that I was at home and they burnt the house where I normally sleep with my wife and children,” Mtshumpela. “That is why they burnt it.” The houses were riddled with bullet holes and police said they collected more than 20 empty cartridges at the scene.

Mtshumpela said his daughter-inlaw, who was initially wounded in the leg, and his eldest daughter had played dead after the initial shooting. The younger children were asleep.

The gunmen left but returned after they heard his daughter-inlaw talking on the phone alerting her husband to the attack.

“First the gunmen shot at the house indiscriminately, injuring her [Rhatshalala] in the leg, and left thinking that they had killed them all,” said Mtshumpela.

“But they came back when they heard her talking on the phone telling her husband about the shooting. One man was heard telling another that he must finish her off. The man came back and shot my daughter-in-law at close range twice in the head.”

He said that his son had overheard the shooting on the phone and begged the killers not to shoot her.

Police asked anyone with information on the attack to contact them. “We appeal to people with information to contact their nearest police station or the Bityi police station. We urge that people not try to apprehend the suspects as they were armed,” said police spokeswoman Captain Dineo Koena.

She said that the houses and the bakkie were petrol-bombed.

Police are investigating cases of murder, arson and malicious damage to property. said