Mayhem follows murder

Police battle to maintain order as Kuyga residents turn on suspects.

The discovery of a 14-year-old girl’s body in a filthy stream gave rise to hours of tension and violence at the Kuyga settlement in Greenbushes yesterday.

At least 20 police vehicles, including armoured riot vehicles, a police helicopter and dozens of heavily armed policemen were called to the settlement on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth to maintain order – and protect three men arrested in connection with the murder of Stacey-Lee Terblanche, 14, who had been shot in the head.

Her body was found face down in a litterinfested stream with a green poncho pulled over her head at 7.35am yesterday, just a few hundred metres from her parents’ small home.

The men, believed to be in their early 20s, were arrested at a house less than 100m from the Terblanche’s home.

They were later takento cells at the Kabega Park police station.

While residents alleged that Stacey-Lee had been raped, police at the scene said this would only be known once a postmortem was done today.

At least a thousand residents who converged on densely populated Nkanyiso Street, which forms a square around a small field in its centre, surged at police who were shielding the suspects.