High court sentences 16 people who set induna on fire

The high court in Polokwane in Limpopo has sentenced 16 people who were involved in a mob justice attack‚ sparked by a chieftancy dispute in 2014.

The 16 people‚ aged between 28 and 56 years old‚ were on Wednesday handed between two years and life imprisonment on charges including murder‚ public violence and arson.

Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said the groups were fighting over the chieftaincy at the Tukakgomo village near Burgersfort in Limpopo.

He said a group of people went to the home of Daniel Kabishi Mojela‚ 62‚ a local induna‚ and assaulted him. "They then forced him to drink petrol‚ poured it all over his body and set him alight‚" Ngoepe said.

He said provincial commissioner General Nneke Ledwaba welcomed the work by all the police officers involved‚ "especially in view of the escalation of the incidents of mob killings and mob attacks in some parts of the province".

"These sentences will send a strong message to all members of the community who are still intending to take the law into their hands by participating in acts of vigilantism and mob attacks‚ that the province will be merciless when dealing with them‚" the general said.