File
Eastern Cape police have announced the arrest of a 57-year-old SANDF member in connection with a recent attack on homesteads in the Bhuje Locality near Port St Johns.
Provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana, said the soldier, who comes from one of the villages in the Majola Area, was arrested in the Mthatha CBC on Tuesday.
He said he member faces charges of murder, attempted murder, and arson and is due to appear in the Port St Johns Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
Kinana said the arrest was a sequel to a commitment by the Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nomthetheleli Mene, that the perpetrators would be brought to book.
He said in the latest incident which sent shock waves across the province and country, more than fifty homesteads and 97 houses were burnt down by unknown suspects in Bhuje Locality.
One person was also killed in a nearby locality on the same night.
Kinana said that the arrest of the army officer came after General Mene ordered the establishment of a Task Team to investigate the “deadly crimes against the people of Majola.”
He said the officer could not have executed his “ugly work alone in those villages” and called on anyone with information that can lead to further arrests to contact Port St Johns Police or call Crime Stop on 08 600 10 111.
