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"The crazy man who wants to chop his father's head off!" - Daily Sun

The front page and lead story of SA's largest daily newspaper, October 2 2013

Daily Sun (October 2 2013) - NOBODY knows what to do with Mad Mbongiseni Thame. He should be in a mental hospital. Instead, he terrorises his home village. NOW HE'S THREATENED TO CHOP HIS FATHER'S HEAD OFF! He turned up at Manelisi Thame's two-roomed house on Monday, swinging a panga and a pick stick.

As neighbours watched in disbelief, Mbongiseni shouted at his 70-year-old father: "You are still here. I told you to leave. I don't want to see you here ever again or else I will kill you. Don't ever come back here." He threatened to kill Manelisi and hang his head at the gate for everyone to see his "grumpy face".

With that he chased his father away - with Daily Sun escorting the bewildered man, carrying his possessions, to safety!

Manelisi, who is also an inyanga, told Daily Sun it's not the first time Mbongiseni has threatened to kill him. "I've always told him to get lost. But last week he wrote a letter and pinned it to our gate.

"The letter said he would ‘hang my head at the gate for people to see it when they pass by'. "From then on, I slept with one eye open," Manelisi said.

Mbongiseni (23) arrived on Monday at B section in KwaMashu, KZN, while his father was waiting for transport to KwaMashu Station.

When Daily Sun asked Mbongiseni why he was threatening to kill his father, he replied: "I don't want to see him ever again. He must go." Manelisi told us he had run away from his son before and stayed with friends down the road, but Mbongiseni would arrive there too. He said his son's mental state deteriorated last year when he quit his job in Cape Town.

He had worked there as a carpenter.

"He came here and chased everyone away," said Manelisi. "He demolished all the rooms I used to rent out. And he threatened to kill me.

"He is sick and he needs help." But that's a problem . . .

Manelisi said cops had been called, but they only took him to King George V Hospital in Durban, where he escaped within a week.

His father said: "He arrived wearing the hospital clothes.

"He became even more aggressive and told me to pack my things and leave the house. He said he will not take any orders from me," the old man said.

Though Mbongiseni's mental health isn't stable, Manelisi believes if he stopped smoking dagga, he would get better. "I wanted the cops to send him to a mental institution but they said they are also scared of him.

"I don't know how to live with someone who is always carrying a panga and talks blatantly about wanting my head," said Manelisi. A neighbour, Kay Mkhize, said Mbongiseni should be removed from the community. "He can't disrespect his father like this. Manelisi should give us the go-ahead and we will show this boy how to behave."

DA councillor Emmanuel Mhlongo said they had also reported the matter to cops but the police seemed unable to take him away.

Police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said the family has to have him institutionalised.

"He must be taken to a hospital and doctors must be informed of his history of violent behaviour so that the hospital can make out an order for him to be institutionalised.

See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....

The Daily Sun is South Africa's largest daily newspaper with an average circulation of 287 222 (Audit Bureau of Circulations 2nd Quarter 2013) and a readership of 5.7m (as per AMPS 2012ab). Its Facebook page can be accessed here. It can be followed on Twitter here. To find about advertising on the Daily Sun click here.

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