‘SA poorest family’ flees mob
A THREAT of mob justice has thrown a Limpopo family of 15 members back into a state of homelessness.
Sowetan had previously reported that a land rights organisation discovered the family living in squalor on a farm near the N1 to Makhado, while young girls in the family were apparently forced to sleep with men to avoid starvation.
This resulted in the government intervening and independent contractors building the family a house in Vleifontein, near Elim.
The family apparently fled the Vleifontein area on Monday after a group of people armed with weapons threatened to burn the house on Sunday night amid allegations that the eldest son had robbed a member of the community at gunpoint.
Yesterday, Limpopo police spokesman Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said the 22year-old took refuge at the Makhado police station on Monday night.
Mojapelo said the community was accusing him of terrorising residents; however no one had come forward to open a case. He said police tried to meet the community on Tuesday night to resolve the matter but people were not willing to listen.
“If they say he has done something, let them come forward and report the matter,” Mojapelo said.
The 22-year-old said his mother and younger siblings had fled after a group of people armed with pangas came looking for him and threatened to burn down the house. He denied that he had robbed anyone.
“When they got there I was not home. They kept asking my sisters where I was, saying that they wanted to kill me,” he said.
He said his family has been forced to go stay with friends at various farms. “My family is stranded.” The 49-year-old mother said the family was now scattered. She said they were too scared to go back to the house because of the threats.
At the time the family were discovered it also came out that some of the children in the family, including a 13year-old boy and a 10-yearold girl, had never been to school.
They were enrolled in a Grade R class at Munzhedzi Primary school for the first time this year.
The school’s principal Maanda Godzwana said the three children had not been to school since Monday.
“It seems as if they are afraid because some members of the community have been threatening the family. We are very concerned,” Godzwana said.
Yesterday, the spokesman for land rights organisation Nkuzi Development Association Vasco Mabunda said they had hoped that the family would be integrated into the community by now.
Mabunda said they would send a team to try and locate the family members.
“We don’t believe that attacking the family will solve anything,” he said.