Villagers reel after gang rampage

THE community of Ngcwazi village in Middledrift is dealing with shock and grief after a spate of armed robberies that left two villagers dead.

Four men have since been arrested for the killings, and a fifth is said to be under guard in hospital after being shot by police while resisting arrest, according to police sources.

On Thursday and Friday, a group of heavily armed robbers, believed to be from Cape Town, invaded the normally tranquil village, storming into two houses and shooting dead two men in cold blood.

On Thursday evening, a local tavern owner, Phindi Tom, 49, died in a hail of bullets from two of the armed robbers, who had entered his home demanding that he hand over his gun and money.

According to a relative, Virginia Makhwabe, the two heavily armed men entered Tom’s house shortly before 9pm on Thursday. They pointed firearms at him and his wife, while their little child was asleep in another room.

Tom was shot repeatedly after he had allegedly tried to wrestle the firearm from one of the robbers, said Makhwabe.

Makhwabe said Tom’s wife was beaten numerous times with the butt of a gun. After realising they had killed Tom, the two robbers ran away without taking anything.

In a separate incident, just before 9am the following morning, the same group stormed into the house of Thobeka George, 70, just a stone’s throw away from Tom’s house.

They again pointed their guns at him, his wife and son, demanding guns and money.

His wife, Nosango George, 69, said when her husband told them he did not have a gun, they shot him twice in the chest, killing him. The gang left with the unloaded gun, money, three bottles of whiskey and her cellphone.

It is understood that the group of five were later traced by police to a nearby village, where they were cornered and arrested on Saturday.

It is also understood that one of the arrested robbers was from the same village and that a number of guns were later recovered at his homestead.

Provincial police spokesman Captain Khaya Tonjeni yesterday confirmed that five suspects, aged between 21 and 29, were arrested in the Chungwa village area early on Saturday morning.

He said police were continuing with their investigation and that further arrests “cannot be ruled out”. —