A 35-year-old man from Polokwane is under police guard in hospital after being saved from an angry mob who accused him of killing his child.
Spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo says the man was arrested on Sunday night for allegedly killing his 4-year-old son and burying his body in a shallow grave in the yard of his rented house.
It is alleged that the child was suffocated over the weekend before being buried.
Mojapelo says community members in the village saw what looked like a grave in the yard and started questioning the father who then ran away.
Community members caught him and forced him to dig up the grave.
By the time police arrived on the scene the body was already retrieved.
The man was attacked by an angry mob and had to be rescued by police.
He will appear in court as soon.
Mojapelo says the child's mother was in Gauteng and it is understood that the father had just fetched the child from her two weeks ago.
