Home | News | Woman shot in Muslim church

Woman shot in Muslim church

Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font
image

MBABANE – Mystery surrounds an attempt to end a 31-year old woman’s life after she was shot and stabbed at a mosque in Manzini around midday on Monday.

At the moment, no one knows the circumstances that led to Khetsiwe Simelane of Ka-Khoza Township being shot and stabbed several times in the chest.

Khetsiwe, who worships and is employed at the mosque, is presently lying in a critical condition in one of the country’s hospitals and relatives say she is comatose.

While police reported yesterday that she was shot once in the chest, her family claims that she was shot five times.

They also claim that hospital staff informed them that she was stabbed eight times.

A relative who identified himself as Thulani Hlanze further alleged that there was also an attempt to slit her throat as there are injuries on her neck. "There are many questions that haven’t been answered. We don’t understand why they wanted to kill her," Hlanze said.

He said when they tried to ask if anyone had heard or seen anything, everyone they spoke to said they saw nothing. The family said they believed that the incident was an attempt to take away Simelane’s life more so because, as Hlanze said, "there was not even an attempt by her assailant to rob or rape her".

According to the family, Simelane was alone when she was attacked as others in the premises had gone inside the mosque to pray.

Xolile Mavimbela, another of Simelane’s relatives, said they believed she did not join the prayer because she was busy with other chores. "The people at the mosque told us that they did not hear anything but only saw Simelane lying in a pool of blood when they came out from holding the prayer," the 22-year old Mavimbela said.

She said from her previous visits to the mosque, it was possible that when one was in church, it was not possible to hear what was happening in the adjoining structures.

"No one knows what happened because she is also not able to talk at the moment," Mavimbela said.

She personally did not know of anything that could have resulted in Simelane being attacked in such a manner.

Simelane has no child and is single, according to her relatives. Deputy Police Public Relations Officer Assistant Superintendent Wendy Hleta said police were investigating the matter.

...we will investigate - church

MBABANE – One of the Muslim church’s committee members has promised to look into Simelane’s matter.

At the moment, the member only identified as Salim said he did not know what happened because he was out of the country.

"I don’t know what happened. Everything is with the police. I’m yet to find out what happened. As soon as I find out then I’ll call you," Salim said.


Comments

A Mosque is a place of worship for people of the Islam tradition. A Church is a place of worship for those who follow the Christian faith tradition. I've never heard of a Muslim church,it just doesn't sound correct.
June 30, 2010, 8:42 am, zandi (zandi110@hotmail.com)

There is no term called Muslim church. As the church represents the worship house for Christians, Masjid (or Mosque in English) is worship house for Muslims. In Islam, there is no named Islam leader. i'm very disappointed at the journalist who wrote this story using a non existent title and the editor for allowing it to be printed with incorrect english & for not correctly researching the appropriate names.
June 30, 2010, 4:40 pm, dario benedito (erayza1@yahoo.com)

I fully agree with you sir, there is a need to clearly differentiate a mosque and a church, our press will mislead our children. To our editors, please do 'editing' and not 'adding'.
June 30, 2010, 4:41 pm, sphetfo (sphetfo@hotmail.com)

Post your comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: