A dark cloud seems to be hanging over the Eastern Cape, as deadly crimes continue to evoke fear amongst communities.
The province has over the past few weeks been dealing with cold-blooded mass murders and now rapes, a scourge that has South Africans concerned.
The latest among the crimes are the separate murders of two women, including Nelson Mandela’s relative and traditional leader, Queen Mother, Nogcinile Mtirara, as well as the rape and robbery of five matriculants in Emqhekezweni Village in the Bhityi area of the Eastern Cape.
The crimes occurred over the last 24 hours and the victims live a few kilometres from each other.
The tragedy comes at a time when the learners are preparing for their IsiXhosa examination paper, which they opted to go and write despite being offered a chance to write at a later stage.
The five teenagers have since been moved to a safe place.
An SGB member at their school, Reverend Sizwe, blames government’s snail pace in addressing the long-standing crime issues they have been raising with officials over the years.
These include rapes, stock theft and extortion.
Sizwe’s sister is one of the two women whose lives were snuffed out in the still of the night.
He had no idea what had happened to his sibling when he was narrating the plight of the community to Y’s sister channel, eNCA. The yet to be named woman had been living alone at the time of the ambush.
A councillor in the area says the killings have become a regular occurrence.
The incidents also come not long after Save SA Civic Movement made a call to Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu, to urgently look into the allegations that some police officers in uMthatha are selling bullets to criminals.
The plea came at the back of the murder of more than 20 people in the province between September and October.
To date, seven people are in police custody for the Lusiskisiki mass shooting where 18 people were killed, while police work to find culprits behind the other murder cases.
Save SA’s Tebogo Mashilompane cites corrupt police officials as an ongoing headache in the bid to solve crime in the country.
He describes the criminality among those entrusted with the safety of South Africans as an injustice to citizens.
The Eastern Cape Provincial Government has also weighed in on the matter.
It’s slammed the bloodshed and called for an urgent solution to the scourge.
A statement by the Eastern Cape Provincial Government following the tragic murder of mama Nogcinile Mtirara, a mother-in-law of Chieftainance Nobulali Mtirara and a violent assault on five Grade 12 learners in the Mqhekezweni area.#EndCrime #ReportCrime#SaferCommunities… pic.twitter.com/J4dDZFpObt
— GCIS – Eastern Cape (@GCIS_ECape) October 30, 2024
The O. R. Tambo District Municipality will hold a prayer tomorrow in quest for an end to the high crime levels.
PRAYER AGAINST CRIME
📅 28 November 2024
⏲️ 10:00
📌 Mqhekezweni Methodist Church pic.twitter.com/DbAHimwOlT— O. R. Tambo District Municipality (@ortambodm) October 30, 2024
Social media users say this cannot be allowed to continue with som ecalling for the deployment of the SANDF.
Mthatha is a crime scene, Bityi is the land of blood😭😡💔
— Mantibane (@UNtlatywa) October 30, 2024
Mthatha is fast becoming the violent crime capital of the Eastern Cape. At this rate, it might as well move to the Western Cape.
— Brenda Wardle (@BrendaWardle) October 30, 2024
Mthatha is really the silent rape capital of South Africa.
— JUSTICE 4 FRANS MATHIPA 🇿🇦 🇵🇸 (@camagumayirha) October 30, 2024
We need soldiers eBhityi. The stories coming out of that place are brutal. 💔#Mthatha
— Thina (@thinamadikizela) October 30, 2024
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