WOMAN KILLED AFTER GAMBLING
Protesters storm police station to demand arrest of suspects
ANGRY young people toyitoyied outside a police station and threw trash on the streets of Malamulele, Limpopo, to demand the arrest of the killers or killer of a well-known local woman.
Mihloti Mabasa, 28, the daughter of leading Malamulele food vendor Mthavini Chauke, was stabbed to death while asleep in her house on Thursday.
The youngsters from Jerome Village in Malamulele were brandishing sticks and stones when they descended on the Malamulele police station on Sunday.
They had left a community meeting held in Jerome village to discuss Mabasa’s death.
Local chairman of the South African National Civic Organisation, Always Baloyi, said: “We were discussing the recent incident which has shocked the community.”
He said the youngsters left their community meeting because they believed the police did not want to arrest certain suspects.
“We are going to address the youth because whatever information we have about the case we must give to the police and not allow disorder to reign in our community.”
The young protesters later left the police station and returned to the village, throwing trash from dustbins at the new Malamulele shopping complex in the streets on the way.
Some of the young people were shouting “We want Mihloti!”, shocking people at the shopping centre.
Malamulele police spokesman Warrant Officer Alson Mapindani said some of the young people had gone to the police station to seek information regarding the progress in the case.
“It was not a formal march and I understand they went there in large numbers but later left,” Mapindani said.
According to Mabasa’s elder sister Jerminah Chauke, her sister had a large amount of money with her on Wednesday night.
“She had R500 given to her by my mother to buy food at the shopping centre,” Chauke said.
“She had grant money for her two children and had just won more than R2 000 in a card game.”
Chauke said when their mother went to sleep on Wednesday night, Mabasa was with one of her gambling friends.
“It is the same young woman who woke up my mother in the early hours of Thursday morning and said some people had got into the house and shot Mihloti dead,” she said.
Chauke said her younger sister ’ s body did not show any sign of gunshot wounds but had three wounds that appeared to be stab wounds.
Mapindani said the police were investigating a case of murder.
“It appears she was stabbed with an unknown object,” he said.
“We are questioning some people but no one has been arrested yet.”