Man smashes 6-year old boy, faces murder charge

Ntsebeng
Motsoeli BEREA
— A 35-year-old man is facing a murder charge after he smashed his six-year-old
boy with a fist in a fit of rage last Thursday. Police
spokesperson Masupha Masupha told the Sunday Express yesterday that the
man from Thuathe on the Berea Plateau punched the little boy after he dropped a
plate onto the floor and broke it.

The
man was so angry when the boy broke the glass plate that he hit him with a
fist, Masupha said. “The
Sefikeng police took him but released him back to his home,” he said. “He
is expected to report to the police tomorrow.”

Masupha
said the man, who is a civil servant, will not be arrested and charged until
the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has given his approval.

“According
to the law, the police can only arrest a civil servant if the DPP has
authorised it.” The
man, whose name we have withheld, is described by his neighbours as violent. Neighbours
told this paper that on Friday morning they saw the man entering his home while
driving a government registered vehicle. Later
he was seen coming out of the house carrying something covered in a blanket and
re-entered the car. It
was not clear what he was carrying. “The
car went away. We learnt later from a relative that he was wrapping his
unconscious son in the blanket.
He was taking him to hospital,” said a neighbour who did not want to be mentioned
by name said. Later
the same vehicle came back to the house.

But
he and the son were not in the car. The driver had come to drop the blanket
that was wrapping the boy. She
said on Saturday morning a relative told them that he had been to the hospital
and the boy had died. “The
young man said he had been to Tšepong Hospital (Queen ’Mamohato Memorial
Hospital) and he was told that the boy died of head injuries,” she said. She
added that the man did not bother to communicate the boy’s death with them
(neighbours) when he came back home on Saturday. Neighbours,
suspecting that the man had something to do with the boy’s death, gathered at
his uncle’s house which is not very far from his house demanding that he tell
them what happened to the child.

“We
knew the moment we heard that the child was hospitalised that he was to
blame.  We went to his house and asked
him where the boy was.” “Some
of the neighbours called the Sefikeng police when his stories did not add up.
He only confessed when the police officers got tough with him and was
arrested.” Another
neighbour said they were surprised when they saw him arrive back home a few
days after his arrest. But
the police told them that he was released just so he could prepare for the
funeral. Villagers
who spoke to this paper said they don’t want him in their midst. The
man was living with the boy and his 8-year-old brother after his wife left him
because he allegedly used to beat her.