EFF leader 'assaults' family

Limpopo EFF secretary and member of legislature Jossey Buthane has been accused of beating up members of his family after a dispute over his grandparents' house in Seshego in Polokwane.
Buthane has denied the allegations.

Jeridah Lekoma, Buthane's aunt said she was tired of being harassed by the politician.

"I want the whole world to know what kind of person he is. A leader is supposed to be a respectable person but he beats up my children," Lekoma said.

Lekoma, who spoke through tears, said her daughters, aged 15 and 19, were allegedly assaulted by Buthane and a group of unknown men.

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She said Buthane and his mother, Freda Raphahlela, who is her older sister, wanted her to leave the family home. She said Buthane and Raphahlela even moved furniture out of the house after her parents died.

"They want us out so they can sell this house," she said.

Lekoma said police intervened after Raphahlela beat her up and scratched her face with a car key at the weekend.

"We cannot live together in peace. We will end up killing each other," she said.


Lekoma said she owns a house in Gauteng but had decided to move back home to stop her sister and nephew from selling the family home.

Buthane's 15-year-old cousin said her older sister opened a case against him after he arrived with a group of people and allegedly beat them up on July 26.

The teenager said Buthane instructed the men to beat her sister with a wooden pole.

"He forced her to get up and told her to clean up her blood with a mop," she said.

Yesterday provincial police's Lieutenant-Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe confirmed that they were investigating a case of assault with the intention to do grievous bodily harm which was opened at the Seshego police station against a politician.

Ngoepe said the suspect was yet to be arrested. He said they were also investigating a case of assault involving two women who are related to each other. But Buthane said the allegations were not true. "I have not assaulted any member of my family, particularly my aunt and niece," he said.

He said he was not involved in the family dispute concerning his grandparents' house. He said Lekoma was lying in a bid to tarnish his reputation.

"She's on my case because she thinks that I will assist my mother to win over that house but I'm very far from that," he said.

Buthane said he had tried to assist his mother and her siblings to resolve the issue peacefully. He said he was not aware of any assault case against him, adding that an interim protection order was never made final by a court. Raphahlela said the allegation was not true.

"She [Lekoma] is just making up stories about us. She wants to embarrass us in public," Raphahlela added.