A jilted lover has set alight his girlfriend’s shack, burning to ashes five children and two adults, including a grandmother.
The girlfriend shared the shack with other family members. The man, who cannot be named because the police have taken him in for questioning, got angry after his girlfriend, Mammy Mwale, told him that their love affair was over.
In a fit of rage, he allegedly burnt down the home just before midnight on Monday. The incident happened at Senthumole section in Koster, North West. Mwale’s three children – Abram, 15, Ofentse, 8, and Refilwe, 10 – her sister Mammy’s daughter Samantha, 12, and three-year-old Precious Mwale died in the fire. Granny Elizabeth Mwale, 74, and her daughter Christina, 40, also perished.
The couple is said to have been in a rocky relationship for over a year. On Monday, things took a turn for the worst after Mwale, 33, got a protection order against the suspect. Family member Emily Mwale said the man entered the house with a bottle full of petrol and immediately poured some on her and Mwale.
“They began to fight, Mammy pushed him outside but he overpowered her. He then ran into the house and poured petrol all over, got out and ran away, [and] before we could think we saw a blazing fire,” said a sobbing Emily.
Emily, whose clothes still smelt of petrol yesterday, said Mwale’s boyfriend destroyed her family. “He has destroyed my family, he has a heart of an animal. I want him to die as cruel as he killed my family,” she said. The man’s mother also said his son had done the most evil and horrible thing.
“He has done a horrible thing, he loved Mammy too much. I do not like what he has done, he told me that he was going to kill everyone in that family. I want the law to punish him.” North West police spokesman Leonard Hlathi confirmed that they had taken in a 49-year-old suspect for questioning.
Source : Onlne
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