Family’s home fire-bombed by angry villagers

An Eastern Cape family is living in fear after they were fire-bombed on Friday by angry villagers who want them gone.

Police were called in after five flaming petrol bombs were thrown into the Zumani family’s two homesteads in Fama village in Debe Nek.

Provincial police spokesman Captain Khaya Tonjeni confirmed that a case of arson and malicious damage to property was being investigated by Chungwa police station detectives.

A Dispatch team visited the village yesterday, where the Zumani family were found in their yard behind locked and chained gates.

Inside, the family kraal was destroyed and the family said they were worried about their cattle in the communal grazing grounds which had not returned home.

Family member Gudile Zumani and his sister Nobekile Fani, said they had been receiving death threats from the community after a relative was accused of raping five people.

Residents had also accused the family of having connections with the police, saying that each time the suspect was arrested he was released without spending time in jail.

He was named in a community meeting last Wednesday as the alleged rapist.

Acting on information, the police arrested a man.

Tonjeni confirmed to the Dispatch they arrested a man on Wednesday after the community meeting.

He appeared in the King William’s Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday, charged with three rape cases.

But the court released him after finding he had been unlawfully arrested.

Zumani said: “The court released him and we had to bring him home.

“But the community did not accept that and they wanted us out of this village, alleging that we have a relationship with the police,” Zumani said.

Tension built until villagers attacked their home later that day.

“They threw petrol bombs into this house. My family kraal was totally destroyed.”

Zumani lost three dogs and traditional trophies in the inferno.

“We had trophies that we keep after we slaughtered an animal and they meant a lot to us,” he said.

Zumani said his father, Thozamile Zumani, who is 99, has had to leave the village after the threats.

“We are in fear as these villagers have threatened to come and burn us all. My father is asking what has he done to deserve this in his twilight years,” he said.

Rape complainants spoke out in the meeting last week, saying the police should lock the suspect up.

The complainants shared their stories in front of police members and officials from two Chapter 9 institutions, the public protector and commission for gender equality.

But Nobekile Fani told the Dispatch the family had done nothing wrong. “We should not be targets as we never committed any crime.

“The court, or the police, has released him, not us.

“We need to be given a chance here as the family but the community does not want to listen,” Fani said.

Since 2015, the family have received a number of letters from community chairman Zihlalele Matyityi, demanding that the family leave the village.

In one of the letters, which the Dispatch has seen, Matyityi says that in order to punish the family, the villagers must not attend any ceremonies that the family holds.

“Matyityi and the ward councillor should protect us but they are failing to do that,” said Fani.

Yesterday, Raymond Mhlaba local municipality ward 19 councillor Zukiswa Mpendu said they would not defend people accused of rape.

“There’s no way I can do that. Anyone who has committed the crime must face the law,” he said.

Matyityi did not respond to calls. — bonganif@dispatch.co.za