The day before 19-year-old Mpho Koko tragically died after being violently attacked at the Marry Me informal settlement in Soshanguve, he had told his mother about his plans to leave the crime-plagued area and join her in Klipgat, about 20km away.
“On Friday he called me and said, ‘Mom, I am thinking of coming to stay with you,’” Mapula Koko said.
He said he would come in the morning when he finished patrolling duties, she said.
“I had been begging him to move from the area and come stay with me and he has been saying he will come. Friday late he called me and said tomorrow I will come,” she recalled.
Koko said that she had lived with her son at the Marry Me informal settlement before deciding to move to Klipgat earlier this year due to rising crime in the area. She spent 11 years in the settlement, and it had been two months since she relocated, leaving her son behind.
There is a lot of crime, and I won't be able to cope staying in a place where my child was brutally murdered.
— Mapula Koko, mother of Mpho Koko
She broke down into tears as she recalled their last interaction on the phone.
“I am deeply hurt. I found him shot and burnt, it broke my heart.
Crime is too much in the area, it's uncontrollable, they steal — it's too much. He wanted to protect people and help the community so it can be safe and he tried to reduce crime,” she said.
Mpho's uncle Victor Koko received a call and rushed to the scene. He said his nephew was shot on the upper body and had a plastic burn mark on his face.
“My nephew was shot and his friend was attacked with stones — it was very bad. We can't even sleep as a family, when you close your eyes you relive the whole scene. I was expecting him to be the one to bury me, but unfortunately I am the one having to bury him,” he said.
He said they would bury him on Saturday and would pass by the scene to collect his spirit.
Koko doesn't believe she will ever go back to live in Marry Me after the death of her son.
“I lost a child while he was trying to protect the community members there. There is a lot of crime, and I won't be able to cope staying in a place where my child was brutally murdered,” she said.
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Police minister Senzo Mchunu confirmed on Tuesday during his visit to the area that one suspect had been arrested while two were taken in for questioning.
Reacting to the development, she said though it is still early for her to find healing, she will find some solace in the fact that one person has been arrested.
“When he is outside, he won't stop killing. I am disappointed, our government is not working, and our police are not working. If they were working, things like this wouldn't happen.
“Our children wouldn't go out on patrol and say they want to stop thugs. They want to apprehend thugs, the thugs come carrying guns and our children are not carrying anything, but they want to defend the community. It would have been better if the police were the ones doing this job,” she said.
The crime scene is a few metres from Hebron Road, next to a pylon. As you enter the community, there are a row of stores, including a tavern, a hardware shop and a car wash.
Further in, makeshift stalls stretch along the first street, with illegal cable connections running along the road. Police officers and some community members are present, lingering in groups under stalls, along the roadside and beneath trees. The remnants of ashes at the spot where the burning occurred are still visible.
Two women stood at the crime scene where the patrollers were killed, to collect the soul of their loved one.
According to community members, the informal settlement was established in September 2012 and was populated by young men and women from around Soshanguve.
With no service delivery, the community members rely on illegal electricity and water connections, pit toilets and mobile toilets.
The community members said despite the services being illegal, they are charged R300 for water and electricity by a group of people who collect the money monthly.
“If you don't pay they disconnect the electricity and the water,” a community member said.
Despite the ongoing suffering, community members are hesitant to speak out, as word spreads quickly throughout the area and often reaches the ears of the perpetrators.
“They once went house to house taking people's phones and shot a person,” a community member, who did not want to be named out of fear, said.
“These people who have died were trying to protect us, we were starting to feel a little safe because they would patrol around,” another community member said.
One woman who also didn't want to be named said gunshots were a part of daily life.
“The gunshots that we hear every day are too much. We are used to gunshots. They would patrol every day and when they are about to knock off they would convene at a stall at about 5am and disperse. That is when the incident happened.”
“I heard gunshots, but it's the norm, we are used to it and you cannot go out,” another community member said.
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