A Kempton Park man was brutally beaten to death in Witbank on Saturday after he was allegedly mistaken for a serial killer amid heightened tensions over the recent killings of women in the Kempton Park area.
Vusimuzi Radebe was walking home from his grandmother’s home in KwaGuqa to Lynville on 19 September when he was reportedly stopped and questioned about where he lived and where he was coming from.
Radebe reportedly told those questioning him that he lived in Kempton Park and was returning from his grandmother’s home.
It is understood that this led to assumptions being made about his identity, with the situation turning violent. Radebe was allegedly attacked and beaten to death at the scene.
His family says he had no connection to the killings that have sparked fear and anger in Kempton Park.
The Radebe and Mathobela families described Vusi as a quiet person who did not speak much and said he was simply making his way home when his life was violently cut short.
The family says the attack was fuelled by assumptions rather than an attempt to establish the truth.
“His life should never have ended because of an assumption,” the family said.
Radebe’s family had lived in Kempton Park since the early 1990s before his parents returned to Witbank about a month ago following retirement.
The family is appealing to anyone who witnessed the attack, saw Radebe travelling from KwaGuqa towards Lynville, or has information that could assist in establishing exactly what happened to him to come forward.
The killing has highlighted the danger of vigilante violence as tensions continue to rise around the unresolved cases involving women whose bodies have been found in and around Kempton Park.
There is no indication from the family statement that Radebe was connected to any of those cases.
