AS THE country is celebrating the New Year, a Limpopo family is in mourning after a woman was attacked by pit bulls on Friday, 30 December.
This is the latest in a string of brutal attacks that have resulted in a number of deaths, including of young kids. .
According to Limpopo police, the 43-year-old Melitta Sekole was walking from a residential area in the Mara policing precinct towards Vivo on Friday at about 5am when she was attacked by the dogs, which ripped her clothes and bit her.
Police spokesman Colonel Malesela Ledwaba said the woman was rescued by community members and taken to hospital in a critical condition.
She was later transferred to the provincial hospital in Polokwane where she succumbed to her injuries.
Ledwaba said the dogs’ owner, Charles Masebe, (62) was arrested and a case of culpable homicide was opened against him.
“He appeared in the Senwabarwana Magistrates Court and was remanded until Thursday, 5 January.
Meanwhile, the Sizwe Kupelo Foundation, which started a petition calling for the ban of pit bulls, has condemned the brutal death.
Sizwe Kupelo Foundation founder and patron, Sizwe Kupelo, said such attacks should not be happening if government would listen to the thousands who signed the petition and ban these wild animals living among people.
“Although it won’t bring back their loved ones, we encourage families of the victims and survivors of pit bull attacks to file civil lawsuits against dog owners,” he said.
Kupelo urged the government to heed the call after almost 138 000 people signed their petition.
He said the petition was handed over to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza’s office last month.
