MASERU – Police have described as scary the rate at which seemingly petty squabbles are turning fatal.
Just in the past week, police say they recorded three murder cases that could have easily been avoided through dialogue.
A Matelile man assaulted his relative to death following a brawl.
In another case, a man from Ha Sekake was arrested for killing a colleague, while a 14-man gang murdered a man in a case of inter-village rivalry in Ha Makhakhe.
“It is scary,” said police spokesman, Masupha Masupha this week.
“People should seek the help of the police when they have conflicts. We don’t have to lose a life. These problems can be solved amicably.”
In Matelile, a 25-year-old man beat to death a relative who had pointed a gun at him for trying to stop a fight on March 26.
“The suspect said he was trying to intervene in a fight where the deceased (aged 19) had a fight with other men from the same village,” said Masupha.
He said the suspect, now charged with murder, was trying to resolve the conflict in which his relative was involved.
The deceased threatened to shoot him leading to a quarrel between the two that ended with the suspect fatally beating the man with a stick.
A 29-year-old man from Ha Sekake is in police custody after beating to death a 36-year-old man last week.
According to a police report, the suspect asked the deceased to meet him so that they could discuss “something”.
An argument ensued during the discussion, leading to a fight, with the suspect using a stick to hit the deceased.
The man surrendered to the police afterwards.
Meanwhile, a long-standing rivalry between members of two neighbouring villages led to the death of a 36-year-old man from Ha Rankoe.
Villagers from Ha Makhakhe and Ha Rankoe have a spat that goes back some months ago when several people died in clashes during an initiation school graduation ceremony.
Last week, a gang of 14 men aged between 22 and 36 from Ha Makhakhe, in a case of revenge, killed a Ha Rankoe man who had visited a woman in their village.
The gang took exception to the Ha Rankoe man’s liaison with a woman from their village and attacked him on his way back to his village in Ha Rankoe.
