Eastern Cape Police Commissioner, Nomthetheleli Mene, and a high-level police management team have visited the conflict-stricken Majola villages in Port St Johns.
52 homesteads and 97 houses have been burnt down at Bhuje village following an attack by unknown suspects.
The situation has left scores of families including children destitute and without food. Mene says Special Organised Crime investigation in the province will deal with arson and murder cases.
Mene says the terrain in the area poses a huge challenge to policing.
“It is a huge challenge because under normal circumstances you would have forces patrolling in convoy but you cannot do that here because the roads are not good, the terrain, there are forests, the mountains, even if you want to reach the houses you cannot do that. It is very difficult, so you cannot patrol just like in a township where you deploy a lot of members, there are no streets, and the area is very difficult to police,” claims Mene.
Zukiswa Nyakula broke her arm and her son sustained injuries while running for their lives.
“I heard the gunshots and the dogs barking. I woke up and ran through the rocky and bushy hills and valleys. My baby was on my back as I was crawling, I fell down, my arm broke, and my baby fell off my back. I would feel him, he was so frightened, and he was trembling because of fear. I was praying for him not to cry out loud because these people were following us, we are very scared,” explains Nyakula.
