Policing experts and political parties have strongly condemned acts of vigilantism that led to the killing of four men in Zandspruit, northwest of Johannesburg yesterday.
Nine men were hauled into the streets of the township where they were brutally assaulted before being necklaced. Five of them survived the horrific attack.
Residents expressed their frustration with an apparent inability by police to deal with crime in their area, while experts warned that mob justice should not be condoned regardless of the driving forces behind it.
The men were accused of a string of robberies they allegedly committed over the past few years.
Professor Johan Burger from the Institute for Security Studies said the reason for mob justice is communities' appetites for instant justice.
“The most obvious reason is a loss of confidence in the police and criminal justice system. Sometimes there is an element of ignorance regarding how the law works. Communities may see a perpetrator being arrested. They see that person out on the streets a few days later without knowing that they were granted bail and not simply released by the police,” said Burger.
“People sometimes do not want to wait months or years for their matters to be concluded because they may not be able to see justice being served.”
Police minister Bheki Cele's spokesperson Lirandzu Temba said the minister would speak on the mob justice incident on Thursday when he delivers the budget vote.
DA spokesperson on community safety in Gauteng Michael Shackleton said behaviour of the residents was totally unacceptable.
“People should never take the law into their own hands. Everyone must comply with the constitution. They should give us case numbers if they feel police are not doing their job. People should be able to rely on their public representative instead of taking the law into their hands,” said Shackleton.
The ANC in Johannesburg also condemned the brutal killings.
“We discourage our communities from resorting to mob justice. We encourage them to work with community policing forums to find perpetrators of crime. When they find these perpetrators they should work with police to bring them to book.
“If police had been allowed to do their work, they would have ultimately apprehended the right people through proper investigations,” said regional spokesperson Sasabona Manganye.
Kenneth Lekalakala, Zandspruit community policing forum chair, told Sowetan that residents felt let down by the police for failing to tackle crime in the area.
“The problem is that some of these guys have been arrested numerous times and released without an explanation. One of them was arrested for rape, assault GBH [with intent to cause grievous bodily harm], and possession of an unlicensed firearm. Another one was arrested three times for dealing in drugs but we don't know what happened to their cases,” said Lekalakala.
He said there was a breakdown in trust between police and residents in the Honeydew police station precinct.
“There are a lot of cases that they have to deal with and they are overwhelmed and the police station covers a big area,” he said.
According to the 2020/2021 fourth quarter crime statistics Honeydew ranked first in the top 30 police stations with the number of 17 community reported serious crimes which include murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery and sexual offences.
Between January and March this year, 2,036 cases were reported at Honeydew police station, a decrease of 345 cases when compared to the third quarter of last year.
However, the police station ranked first in three of the four quarters under review in the last year, averaging about 2,000 cases per quarter.
The statistics also revealed that in Gauteng there were 189 cases of mob justice-related murders reported to the police in the past four quarters. However, Brig Anesh Maharaj, Honeydew police station’s station commander, told Sowetan that mob justice incidents were not common in the township.
Gauteng police spokesperson Cpt Kay Makhubele said they were investigating four murders and five counts of attempted murder.
Patricia Seabi, whose son Vusi Seabi was one of the four victims, said her son was a good person who did not deserve to be killed.
“My son did not deserve to die like this. He was a good boy, although I cannot vouch for what he did when he was out with his friends. Community members who felt aggrieved by his actions should have come to me so we could talk about it, they did not need to kill him like a dog,” said Seabi.
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