Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Cops fire smoke grenades at Masi protesters
then ran between the houses to a shopping complex.
“What’s happening? Help,” one of the shoppers screamed.
Vellem faces charges of murder, attempted murder, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, and inciting public violence.
He intends pleading not guilty to all the charges.
During yesterday’s court proceedings it emerged eight people had been murdered in Masiphumelele since the middle of September, and that Vellem was believed to be the ring leader behind mob killings and violent protests in the area.
Some of the violent acts he is alleged to have been involved in were detailed, including how police managed to save a man who was being necklaced.
A picture also emerged of fighting among residents in the form of retaliatory mob attacks.
Testifying in his own defence, Vellem said that before his arrest he had been staying at a home along the main road in Masiphumelele for a week.
This was because his home had burnt down.
He said he was not sure what had caused the fire. But State prosecutor Gift Hina said residents wanted to kill Vellem, and had set his home alight.
“The State is going to lead evidence that actually the community doesn’t want you there,” he said.
This upset residents in the public gallery, who shouted their support for Vellem.
Vellem insisted he was not a community leader but rather the head of a smaller group of residents, the Masiphumelele Backyarders and Informal Settlement Forum.
But the investigating officer in the case, Siyasanga Maputuka, testified that Vellem was an influential community leader.
He testified that the situation was so volatile in Masiphumelele a resident threatened him, saying if he entered the informal settlement he would be killed.
Maputuka said the crimes Vellem was accused of started hours after 14-year-old Amani Pula was murdered and allegedly raped in his home in Masiphumelele.
At 1.10am on September 15, he said, Vellem, with a group of residents, went to the home of a resident, Mkululi.
“(Vellem) took Mkululi out the house to the community. He sprayed his pepper spray in the house and closed the gate.”
Mkululi was then assaulted so severely that he died at the scene.
In another incident on September 15, Maputuka said a group of residents tried to find Amani’s rapist and targeted a man. “They killed the guy and he was innocent. They used stones and hanged him.”
On September 20, Vellem allegedly led a group to a resident named Lucky, who they believed was selling drugs.
“They took him and hit him against the shack. (Vellem) had an iron rod. The one was carrying an axe, another a stick,” Maputuka testified.
Lucky was beaten and forced to say who he was selling drugs for.
Police saved Lucky after residents tried to necklace him.
The man for whom he allegedly sold drugs was killed.
Maputuka testified that he feared that releasing Vellem on bail would disrupt the Masiphumelele community.