{"id":33998,"date":"2022-07-19T19:24:05","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T19:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2"},"modified":"2022-07-19T19:39:49","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T19:39:49","slug":"fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2","title":{"rendered":"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>When load shedding hit on Saturday evening, Thapelo Phiri walked to a local spaza shop to buy candles.<\/p>\n

Phiri, 20, wanted his eight-year-old twin brothers to have some light during load shedding.<\/p>\n

But Phiri never made it home \u2014 instead, he was shot dead in the street.<\/p>\n

Phiri’s murder was one of at least seven that has rocked the Thembelihle informal settlement since Thursday.<\/p>\n

In one incident, a group of men were playing dice on Sunday when they were shot at.<\/p>\n

Eighth person arrested in connection with deadly shooting spree in Alexandra<\/p>\n

Police spokesperson Brigadier Mavela Masondo said a manhunt had been launched after four people died in the attack and two others were injured.<\/p>\n

In another incident over the weekend, a 36-year-old man was killed when he was robbed of his bicycle and cellphone.<\/p>\n

Speaking to News24 on Monday, Phiri’s mother, Janet Rampeoane, said she had left the informal settlement on Friday to go to work in Lombardy East.<\/p>\n

Rampeoane is usually at work on weekdays and comes home on Fridays. But last week she was not, as her employer asked her to care for her elderly mother.<\/p>\n

“I was at work and received a call that he had been shot. I was told he was walking to the shops when it happened,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said Phiri hardly left their home because he cared for his young siblings.<\/p>\n

“He loved music and soccer. He was also focused on his schoolwork,” she said.<\/p>\n

Phiri was completing matric at a local high school.<\/p>\n

Rampeoane said that since his death his classmates had been calling her.<\/p>\n

She said:<\/p>\n

Rampeoane said her son hoped to train as a prison warder next year.<\/p>\n

“His father had found him a school in the Free State and he was very excited about it. All his text messages to his father were about that,” she said.<\/p>\n

A neighbour, Teboho Maoba, said: “Thapelo was very serious about school. All he did was study and take care of the twins. When you wanted him, you knew you’d find him at home.”<\/p>\n

Maoba said last year Phiri and his friends had a dance crew, but it was stopped, so he could concentrate on matric.<\/p>\n

“He was very excited about next year and training to be a prison warder. That is all he talked about. He wanted to change his family’s life,” he said.<\/p>\n

A few houses from Phiri’s home, another family was grieving after Mzayifane Mdube was murdered while walking back from church on Thursday.<\/p>\n

His partner, Tenele Mathenjwa, said when Mdube was not working to install windows, he was at church.<\/p>\n

His sister, Phumzile Motaung, said she was called to the scene and was shocked to find the father-of-three on the ground, lifeless.<\/p>\n

Motaung said:<\/p>\n

A local councillor, Godfrey Lebea, said fear had gripped the area.<\/p>\n

“There is a scene of worry and distress in the community, thanks to this rampage of [shootings]. The idea that people can go around shooting randomly is causing a lot of worries. No one is happy in the area. It is very quiet, and everyone is at home because they are scared,” he said.<\/p>\n

Masondo said police were investigating five cases of murder and two of attempted murder, but they had not yet confirmed the murders of Phiri and Mdube.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. When load shedding hit on Saturday evening, Thapelo Phiri walked to a local spaza shop to buy candles. Phiri, 20, wanted his eight-year-old twin brothers to have some light during load shedding. But Phiri never made it home \u2014 instead, he was shot dead in the street. Phiri’s murder was one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":33997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[274,315,2372,309,310,2730,312,275],"class_list":["post-33998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-crime-and-courts","tag-gauteng","tag-johannesburg","tag-mavela-masondo","tag-saps","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nFear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When load shedding hit on Saturday evening, Thapelo Phiri walked to a local spaza shop to buy candles. Phiri, 20, wante ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When load shedding hit on Saturday evening, Thapelo Phiri walked to a local spaza shop to buy candles. Phiri, 20, wante ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-19T19:24:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-19T19:39:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"478\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-19T19:24:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-19T19:39:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2\"},\"wordCount\":573,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"crime and courts\",\"gauteng\",\"johannesburg\",\"mavela masondo\",\"saps\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2\",\"name\":\"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-19T19:24:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-19T19:39:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"When load shedding hit on Saturday evening, Thapelo Phiri walked to a local spaza shop to buy candles. Phiri, 20, wante ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":478,\"caption\":\"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area - South Africa","description":"When load shedding hit on Saturday evening, Thapelo Phiri walked to a local spaza shop to buy candles. Phiri, 20, wante ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area","og_description":"When load shedding hit on Saturday evening, Thapelo Phiri walked to a local spaza shop to buy candles. Phiri, 20, wante ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-07-19T19:24:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-07-19T19:39:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":478,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area","datePublished":"2022-07-19T19:24:05+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-19T19:39:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2"},"wordCount":573,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","crime and courts","gauteng","johannesburg","mavela masondo","saps","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","community","homepage-english"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2","name":"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-19T19:24:05+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-19T19:39:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"When load shedding hit on Saturday evening, Thapelo Phiri walked to a local spaza shop to buy candles. Phiri, 20, wante ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_19-62d708587389a.jpg","width":720,"height":478,"caption":"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/fear-grips-thembelihle-residents-after-several-murders-in-the-area-2#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fear grips Thembelihle residents after several murders in the area"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}