By Lungi Langa
The family of a 67-year-old KwaSwayimane woman who was hacked to death by a mob want those responsible to feel the long arm of the law.
Pensioner Margaret Mhlongo was murdered on 21 January when an angry mob accused her of setting fire to her neighbour’s field of sugarcane.
After burying her on Saturday, her sister in-law, Nokuphiwa Mhlongo, said the family was still traumatised as they never dreamt that “Margaret would one day die like this.
“She was a kind, reliable, clean person. She did not even drink and was loved by almost everyone. That’s why we don’t understand what could have led to her being attacked and killed like this,” said Mhlongo.
She said they were at home, not too far from the family home where Margaret lived, when she and her husband were called by the owner of a sugarcane field to say a mob had attacked her.
“He picked us up and told us that she had not been hurt but had been beaten. I was shocked to get there and find her severely beaten and cut with a machete on different parts of her head.”
Nokuphiwa said the owner of the field told them that one of the neighbours had caught her red- handed carrying petrol and setting light to the field. Then other villagers joined in and started beating her.
Her family is still tormented by the circumstances surrounding the elderly woman’s death.
They no longer want to hear explanations from those allegedly responsible for the attack, but “want to see the law take its course because they were never honest from the start”. A confusing detail was that her phone and house keys were found at home and not in the field where she was allegedly found.
When Scrolla.Africa tried to get hold of the owner of the sugarcane field, the man who answered at the number dialled said it was a wrong number.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson, Colonel Robert Netshiunda, confirmed that police were investigating the matter.
“No arrests have been made at this stage but police are following several leads. Community members are discouraged from taking the law into their own hands but should report any act of criminality to the police,” he said.
He appealed to anyone with information to contact the nearest police station or call the CrimeStop number — 08600 10111.
Pictured above: Margaret Mhlongo who died after being suspected of arson
Image source: Supplied
