Special police team to probe horror crime

CANNIBALISM, femicide and other horrendous crimes which terrified communities would be investigated by a special team whose first job would be to draw up a strategy.

This was announced yesterday by the Eastern Cape community safety MEC Weziwe Tikana and police.

Tikana was addressing a joint press briefing with Eastern Cape police commissioner LieutenantGeneral Liziwe Ntshinga at the Eastern Cape in King William’s Town yesterday.

“I will be tasking the provincial commissioner of the SAPS and the acting head of department of community safety and liaison Zukile Kani to provide me with a comprehensive strategy to be implemented in curbing the murderous scourge that is rising in the province, more especially looking into the recent acts of human fleshe Tikana said.

Tikana said crime-fighting was a numbers game, with the population in the province outnumbering the police by 350 to 1.

“If the public is not prepared to fight crime with the police, then we will lose,” she said.

Ntshinga said the incidents mentioned by the MEC were the most shocking cases recorded thus far, but not the only ones.

“It is most worrying that this trend might continue. Everything possible is being done to bring those involved to book.”

Ntshinga said witchcraft accusations were just an excuse used by criminals to kill defenceless elderly women.

In the last two weeks 2 662 suspects were arrested for various crimes. A total of 56 illegal firearms were confiscated and 117 stolen livestock recovered.

● A young man who was shot and wounded by police on Sunday, while eating the flesh of a woman he had just beheaded, died in hospital yesterday.

Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo confirmed the death. “Aphiwe Mapekula, 23, had excessive internal bleeding caused by the injuries to the abdomen,’’ Kupelo said.

Meanwhile, the family of Mapekula’s victim, Thembisa Masumpa, 35, at Mpungutyana village are struggling to raise funds to bury her as she was the breadwinner, earning an income from doing laundry and cleaning people’s homes – including that of Mapekula.

Umzimvubu mayor Bulelwa Mabengu and her delegation visited the two families. The mayor’s office manager, Nokhanyo Zembe, said the council would meet this week.

“The [Masumpa] family is really struggling. They have lost a loved one under these circumstances and now they are faced with a second challenge of having no funds to bury her,’’ Zembe said.

Social development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi said the cannibalism incident at KwaBhaca had resulted in a wave of collective shock and trauma in the Eastern Cape.

She said this had occurred soon after another horrific incident at Port St Johns, where four-year-old Kamvelihle Ngala’s body was chopped up, his heart eaten and his blood allegedly drunk by his uncle.

● Another boy was killed last Thursday at Mdeni village Shawbury near Qumbu by two young men saying they wanted to use his blood to cure a man with mental problems.

Both suspects were arrested and are facing charges of murder.