Pretoria mob attacks alleged robber

The community turned to mob justice after a man known as Scarface allegedly robbed a 75-year-old woman of her pension money in Atteridgeville, Rekord Moot reported.

Eyewitness Mpho Seale said residents were woken up by the elderly woman screaming.

“We immediately knew that something was wrong, so we blew our whistles, and every member of the community came out running to help our elderly neighbour,” said Seale.

He added that the elderly woman, Elizabeth Ngobeni, had been staying alone since the beginning of the year, and that she was often targeted by criminals.

“We found Scarface inside the woman’s house with stolen items and money. Some residents started beating him because they have grown tired of the boy and his regular criminal behaviour,” said Seale.

“If police had not shown up, the boy would probably have been dead.”

In a separate incident, the case against two men arrested in connection with a suspected mob justice murder in KwaZulu-Natal had been withdrawn due to insufficient evidence.

This after a man identified as Aya Shanga died from multiple injuries sustained after an alleged assault by members of the community in the Nkothaneni location in October.

Shanga was believed to have been involved in an armed robbery and murder in the area.

Police spokesperson Captain Gerald Mfeka later warned the community members to not take the law into their own hands.

Read more: KZN mob justice murder case withdrawn

Research by the Institute of Security Studies found that mob justice served as an occasion for victims and the communities with which they were linked, to “proclaim the extent of their suffering and seek punitive redress”.

The study by Dr Gail Super from the Institute for Criminology at the University of Cape Town found that mob justice occurred when community members united against an outsider and become bonded for an intense moment in a way that masks the problems that tear the community apart.

– Caxton News Service