DE-DEUR .- Velile Mbambane (23) is scarred for life after he was brutally attacked allegedly by a neighbour who was accompanied by members of a suspected vigilante group from Lakeside, who call themselves ‘Men in Black’.

The man who is currently in hiding because he fears for his life says that the incident happened on September 21.

“My 20-year-old brother and I live alone at our parents’ home. On that afternoon, my brother was outside and he was reprimanding our neighbour’s child for pushing our fence as it was now beginning to fall.

“The child responded by swearing at us and we chased him away. Thereafter, a big commotion transpired as the child’s older brother came to our yard to confront us. We told him to leave and later, the father also came to confront us.”

The boys state that they pushed the father out of the yard as they did not want the commotion to continue.

“We thought that the commotion was over but things were about to take a turn for the worst. We went to bed early that day because there was load-shedding at 20:00.

“We just heard banging on our door, the people eventually kicked our door in and more than 10 men wearing balaclavas came in. They were accompanied by our next-door neighbour who was not covering his face at the time.

“The men grabbed both me and my brother and dragged us outside our shack. They laid me on the ground and started whipping me with their sjamboks.

“They did not even ask me anything. They continued to whip me until one of the neighbours came to inspect what was going on; they were scared off by a torch.”

Mbambane says he was hospitalised for four days and had to go into hiding as soon as he was released from the hospital as he feared for his life.

Mbambane’s aunt, Merry Mbambane, says as a family, they are highly disappointed by what the neighbour allegedly did.

“He knows that the boys don’t have parents but he could have made means to speak to us. We instructed the kids to apologise to him.

Velile is deeply traumatised by this ordeal. He needs counselling.”

Police spokesperson Captain Fikile Funda says: “We can confirm that one suspect was arrested and appeared in court on Monday, 2 October. He is released on bail. A case of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm is being investigated.”