Plundering vagrant arrested

Mokopane’s infamous tree chopping vagrant, Thabang Nxumalo, won’t be able to tend to his ‘farm’ at the Dorps River bridge in Pretorius Street. He was arrested last week and appeared in court on Monday.
He is held in contempt of court for failing to adhere to an eviction order obtained by the municipality.
This follows reports of him throwing bottles and stones at passers-by and concerned citizens who tried to approach him on his indiscriminate and illegal cutting of trees on this public land.
Northern News editor, Jasper Raats, went to investigate and also fell victim to the man’s stone throwing and verbal abuse.
A vast portion of land on the banks of the river has already been cleared of indigenous trees to make way for the malicious man’s subsistence crops. He even sells the wood he illegally chops without any consequences.
Nxumalo is said to intimidate anyone who ventures close to his ‘operation’ with people being afraid to walk past this vacant land.
Daléne and Freddy van Eyk, who own a factory in the industrial area, say their workers are too afraid to cross the river at the bridge because the man regularly threatens them.
Nxumalo will appear in court again next week.