The boyfriend of 25-year-old Mavis Mabala has been arrested after her body was found in a bush in Limpopo, South Africa.
The Vhulaudzi village police station and two police vehicles have also been torched.
Local sources said news that Mavis Mabala had been declared missing prompted an aggressive response from the community.
“The disappearance of the deceased resulted in the community of Phadzima village venting their anger on the police and subsequently torching the Vhulaudzi police station and two police vehicles,” Lieutenant Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said in a statement.
Protesters started by barricading road access to the police station. On-duty officers attempted to repel them by firing warning shots, but were apparently “overwhelmed” by the mob of “around 700”.
Members of the Public Order Policing Unit were deployed as backup to the station and to remove the barricades after the building and two vehicles were “completely gutted”.
Mabala’s 30-year-old boyfriend was arrested after Limpopo police said on Saturday that they had cracked the case after she went missing on Wednesday. Her body was found outside Phadzima village on the same day, after the boyfriend pointed out where he “killed and dumped” her body. He will attend court soon.
21 people were also arrested for burning the police station and appeared in Thohoyandou Magistrate’s Court on charges of public violence, arson, malicious damage to property and illegal gathering.
They were denied bail, and will appear in court again on June 21.
Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Nneke Ledwaba reiterated his call to members of the community to “give the police the necessary space to operate and desist from engaging in acts of vigilantism”.
