EFF T-shirt stirs anger at house handover
DRAMA unfolded at the government handover of a house to the family of slain Coligny teenager Matlhomola Mosweu when his mother arrived wearing an EFF T-shirt.
The boy’s mother, Agnes Mosweu, arrived at the event, organised by the ANC-ruled North West government, dressed in a red EFF T-shirt. Officials and ANC members wanted her to change her garb, but she refused.
“They cannot dictate to me what to wear,” she said angrily.
Matlhomola’s father, Sakkie Dingake, was seated at the back of the VIP tent erected for the handover ceremony, far from other family members who were seated at the front.
He said he had not been invited to the event, adding that Agnes was not happy that her house had been built at Gerdoren Park and not at Scotland informal settlement, where she lived.
The house is isolated and is near the place where Matlhomola was killed.
North West Premier Job Mokgoro was expected to hand over the house to the family later. The house was pledged by former human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Gift of the Givers in 2017 following the death of Matlhomola, who was accused of stealing sunflower seed heads at Rietvlei farm.
The family had been staying in a dilapidated shack at Scotland informal settlement.
Matlhomola, 16, was killed by Pieter Doorewaard, 28, and Phillip Schutte, 35, in April 2017 after they caught him with sunflower heads worth R80 at their employer’s field. They put him in the load bin of their van and drove off. Along the way, Schutte pushed him out while the van was still in motion.
He sustained neck injuries and died on his way to hospital in Lichtenburg. His death set off mass violent protests in the sleepy maize-producing town.
Six houses and three trucks were torched, and several shops were looted and damaged. The town was in shutdown for five days until the two handed themselves in to the police.
Doorewaard and Schutte claimed he jumped out of the van in an attempt to flee, but the high court rejected their version.
Schutte was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for murder, three years for kidnapping, two years for intimidation, one year for theft and two years for pointing of a firearm.
The sentences for kidnapping, intimidation, theft and pointing of a firearm will run concurrently, meaning he will serve an effective 23 years in jail.
Meanwhile, Doorewaard was sentenced to an effective 18 years for murder, kidnapping, intimidation, theft and two years for pointing a firearm.