A ward councillor from the Emalahleni Local Municipality, in Mpumalanga, will be back in the Cacadu Magistrates’ Court in the Eastern Cape next Friday to apply for bail.
Hluphekile Bobotyane was arrested on Friday in connection with the killing of seven men in Ezingqolweni Village in Lady Frere, on Wednesday night.
He has been charged with five counts of murder.
Four people were burnt alive while two others were found hanged in a nearby forest in Marashu village.
The seventh victim succumbed to injuries in hospital.
Eastern Cape National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Spokesperson, Luxolo Tyali, says they will oppose bail.
“The murders relate to what is suspected to have been a mob justice incident where seven young men killed. Bobotyane has not been linked to two of the murders of the men that were found hanging from trees in the nearby forest at Maqhashu. At the moment he is only facing the charge relating to the men who were burnt to death and the one that died in hospital as a result of the burnt wounds he sustained during the attack,” explains Tyali.
Bobotyane joins four other suspects in the case who were already in police custody at the time of his arrest.
