Cape Town - Domestic abuse led to murder and retaliation with racial undertones between coloured and black people in the normally quiet town of Malmesbury.
Three teenagers were stabbed and thereafter a fight ensued leaving 16 homes gutted in Phase 3, Ilinge Lethu and Wesbank (Saamstaan) communities in Malmesbury.
On Sunday afternoon, a black man was seen assaulting his coloured wife.
Resident Devon Dolmag was with his nephew and a friend when he saw the couple fighting. He tried to intervene. But he was killed in the process.
His sister Salomie Dolmag said: “A neighbour came to me and asked me to call the ambulance because Devon had been stabbed.
“I went to check Devon, he was lying on the ground next door, there was blood coming out of his mouth,” the sister said.
“Afterwards another neighbour took him to hospital, where he died.”
The heartbroken woman said when she calmed down she asked what led to her teenage brother’s death.
“They said he went to buy beers with my nephew and another guy, and they saw a guy with a grey car, and he was beating his wife and they tried to help the woman.
“The guy drove away and went back and started stabbing them.”
The sister said the racial war began after the stabbing incident.
“It started because Devon was stabbed by a black guy. This was not the first incident where a coloured person is killed by a black person, two weeks ago a child was killed.”
Shopowner Sam Nkondo said he wasn’t around when the fight took place, but he was informed that his spaza had been set alight.
“I don’t know why my shop was burned down. I lost everything, and they didn’t break into the shop, nothing was looted, they just threw a petrol bomb in.
“I didn’t just run a shop, I also fixed refrigerators and microwaves, now I will be forced to pay all of that back from my pocket.”
Raymond Mentz said the incident wasn’t about race.
“Devon’s friends went to look for the suspect, two of his friends fought with the coloured boys and then the Phase 3 residents joined in.
“The Saamstaan people went to defend the boys.
“The houses were burnt because the suspect ran into a shack and the boys from Saamstaan burned the wrong shack.”
Swartland Municipality mayor Harold Cleophas said the municipal relief and emergency teams had done a needs assessment in the affected areas of Wesbank and Ilinge Lethu following the violence last night.
“Approximately 16 families, an estimated 66 persons, have been affected by the fires.”
Police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said public violence dockets as well as three separate murder cases were opened for further investigation following sporadic incidents of unrest that erupted in the township of Ilinge Lethu in Malmesbury on Sunday at about 6.30pm.
“Preliminary investigation suggests that a 36-year-old man was involved in an accident where he allegedly hit a young man on the corners of Arend and Alfa Streets, where after an altercation took place between the driver of the car and the group of young men.
“During the altercation, three young men sustained stab wounds, of which a 17-year old boy died on his way to the hospital.
“The suspect was arrested on scene. It is alleged that the community mobilised themselves and public violence erupted resulting in the destruction of a number of dwellings through fire and the damaging of property.
“Public order police and local members responded and calmed down the unrest.
“Members then discovered the bodies of two men, aged 48 and 50 who had succumbed to multiple injuries, stab wounds to their bodies. It is believed that the discovery stems from the public unrest.”