2 shot, killed during chaotic protest
2011-05-31 20:07
-
ICD Therapy
This volume provides the practicing physician with a summary of the current status of ICD therapy,...
Now R528.00
buy now
Johannesburg - Two people were shot and killed during a protest over ritual killings in Tlokweng and another person was shot and wounded, the North West public safety department said on Tuesday.
Three people were shot during the protest on Monday. Two died and another was hospitalised, said spokesperson Lesiba Kgwele.
He said this emerged after government officials, including North West Premier Thandi Modise, visited Tlonkweng on Tuesday.
The ages of the three were not known.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Thulani Ngubane confirmed the deaths, saying one person did not die on the scene but in hospital on Tuesday.
"The whole village was in chaos... they were found in different areas," he said.
Independent Complaints Directorate spokesperson Moses Dlamini said an investigation was underway into the shootings.
Investigators from the police watchdog body were on the scene on Monday night, he said.
Residents went on the rampage on Sunday after the funeral of Thabiso Moloi, whose decomposing body was found in the bush.
Tlokweng residents suspected that Moloi was killed for muti. Buses transporting people to work were stopped and schoolchildren were not allowed to go to school on Monday.
A car and house - belonging to the owner of the tavern at which Moloi was last seen - were torched and the tavern owner was intimidated.
Government officials told residents that an independent team would be set up to probe ritual murders in Tlokweng over the past four years.
"Premier Modise appealed to the community to come forward with information that will lead to the arrest of perpetrator/s of the ritual murder of Thabiso Maloi," said Kgwele.
A six-member team of community members were elected to assist the police in their probe of the ritual killings.
Kgwele said the situation in the village remained tense but calm on Tuesday.
Modise asked the community to remove the barricades and allow pupils to return to school and workers to go back to work.
She told residents to allow the law to take its course and assured them that the ICD would probe the deaths of those shot on Monday.
- SAPA
