Seeking vengeance for a brother’s death has led to an elder brother and two friends stabbing a man multiple times at a hostel in Mamelodi.
The incident occurred at the temporary residential units at Kingsley hostel on Saturday around 19:00.
Mamelodi police spokesperson Captain Johannes Maheso said the police were investigating two murder cases.
“Allegedly Rethabile Mavovane was stabbed to death by Avuyile Skhundhla after a squabble while drinking.
“The brother of the deceased then went in search of the alleged killer taking along two friends armed with knives and stabbed him to death too,” said Maheso.
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According to the information the police received, Mavovane and Skhundhla were sitting with a group of people at the hostel having drinks before they got into an argument then one pulled out a knife and stabbed the other to death.
“The victim was stabbed several times in the upper body and died on the scene,” said Maheso.
Maheso said eyewitnesses said the elder brother and his two friends found the suspect in the vicinity of the first stabbing.
He said the police have arrested two people, aged 27 and 34, while the third is on the run but the investigation continues.
Maheso said there was a lot of alcohol abuse at the hostel so the police planned to raid the area for illegal liquor trading.
A Kingsley hostel resident, Alfred Phogole, said since the units were illegally occupied, “every night there are fights and loud all-night music”.
He said the hostel committee raised the issue with the Tshwane metro, but nothing has been done to resolve the situation.
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The temporary units at the hostel were supposed to be allocated to hostel dwellers by the end of June 2020 to prevent the overcrowding that spread the Covid-19 virus.
He said this is not the first stabbing at the units, two other people have previously been stabbed to death.
Other hostel dwellers said they were also not happy with the resettlement progress thus far because they were supposed to have been living in the units by now.
They claimed to have moved into units to “look after them”.
“We have been through a lot for almost two decades. We are still waiting for allocation,” they said.
The suspects briefly appeared in the Mamelodi magistrate’s court on charges of murder on Monday.
The case was remanded to August 8 for a possible bail hearing.
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