Lehututu Murder Cases Worry Police

Pini Bothoko | Monday June 11, 2018 13:25

 

Tshane Police station commander, Vusimusi Jorowe said they have observed that most of the arguments that start as fights and end up leading to deaths usually begin during alcohol consumption.

He said that this year alone they have already recorded three murder cases, which all were a result of arguments that could have been avoided. “This is a concern because the murder cases have been occurring even in the previous year, something that calls for immediate attention,” he said.

Jorowe said that in the past people used to be able to control their anger or frustration and channel those feelings to non-destructive outlets but of late people, especially the youth have been exhibiting a frightening lack of control.

“Most of the perpetrators as well as the victims are youth.  “Usually the murders occur when the other party wants to walk out of a relationship with the other party acting out as a result of jealousy. In some instances, the men fought amongst themselves to the death in dispute over the women,” he said.

Jorowe said they have been conducting awareness campaigns across his policing area urging people to respect the sanctity of life, to avoid settling disputes through violent means, but that seems to be falling on deaf ears.

He pointed to have observed that acting under the influence of drugs and alcohol in most of the youth leads them to no longer have fear.They lose their temper and patience easily and end up taking decisions that they tend to regret when sober, he said. He said last month two young men fought over a girl and the other ended up stabbing his adversary to death with a sharp object. “Currently, we are investigating another murder case in which recently lovers had a misunderstanding on their way home from the bar and the man ended up killing his partner,” he said.

He said that their investigations have found that the woman might have sustained injuries that caused her death because she was not bleeding, but was swollen from the beatings.

“We suspect that she might have been strangled to death or the beating injuries caused her death. 

“The suspect himself reported the incident to the police. When interrogated, he said that after their fight his partner failed to wake up. The 32-year-old suspect is currently in custody facing a murder charge,” Jorowe said.

He said that the deceased’s body was sent for postmortem and later handed to her family for burial conducted over the weekend.

“I am calling for members of the community to involve a third party, the police, Dikgosi or community leaders when having a misunderstanding in their relationship to avoid unnecessary fights that usually lead to deaths,” Jorowe pleaded.