Zimbabweans live in fear amid xenophobic attack threats

Chief Mathoho said he had since brought the issue to the attention of police, who are now handling it.

“I simply advised the community to follow the proper channels rather than taking the law into their own hands by resorting to violence. As chief of the area, I have already notified police as such threats cannot be taken lightly,” he said.

South African police spokesperson for Mutale, Captain Tshilidzi Nyambeni, confirmed that a Zimbabwean man had been arrested in connection with the murder of Ms Phuluso Kharivhe and the attack on her mother, Christinah Kharivhe.

“We have arrested a Zimbabwean man linked to the murder of a local woman. We arrested him at Matangari Village with the assistance of the local community and he has already appeared at the Mutale magistrate’s courts and he was remanded in custody,” he said.

Capt Nyambeni said the now deceased and her mother were attacked on Christmas Day at about 7pm, while they were walking towards their home.

“The woman was walking with her now deceased daughter, Phuluso, and her grandson, Thangano Lifamisa, whom she was carrying on her back, when they spotted the suspect following them with a torch in his hand. The suspect struck the mother with a stone on the head before he stabbed her daughter with a knife resulting in her bleeding profusely and she died on admission to the hospital,” he said.

Several Zimbabweans living in South Africa have in the past fallen victim to xenophobic attacks at the hands of locals.

In June 2011, a Zimbabwean man, Mr Godfrey Sibanda, was cornered by a mob and stoned to death in Extension 75 of Seshego Township, northwest of Polokwane, while walking home from work. The fracas also resulted in scores of Zimbabweans fleeing their homes.

In May 2008, 62 people among them Zimbabweans, were left dead and more than 100 000 displaced and property worth millions of rand looted or destroyed during xenophobic attacks on foreigners, which started in Alexandra Township in Johannesburg before spreading to other parts of the neighbouring country.