WHEN residents heard that a man who poisoned his daughter and himself was still alive, they stopped an ambulance getting through.
Early on Wednesday morning, a neighbour in Ekangala, Tshwane heard screams from the house next door and called residents.
They found Sibusiso Sphaku (35) had tried to kill his daughter with poison. He had tried to commit suicide after fighting with the child’s mother on Tuesday night.
A resident said: “The child went missing on Monday.
“Her mother did not know her father had taken her.”
The father and the eight-year-old were rushed to a local clinic but she was already dead.
When residents heard what happened, they went to the clinic but security guards refused to let them in.
Clinic staff put the father, who was still alive, in an ambulance but residents blocked the entrance and the road so the vehicle couldn’t leave.
People called for the man to be taken out of the ambulance. “He must also die,” they said.
Constable Yeroboam Mbatsane said the clinic referred the father to hospital but the ambulance couldn’t leave the clinic. “The man died in the ambulance,” Mbatsane said.
Residents demanded his body, wanting to burn it.
Fighting broke out between residents and cops, who had to use rubber bullets and teargas.
Police had to escort the van to collect the bodies.
Mbatsane said a suspect was bust for public violence.
