Parkwood neighbourhood watch members allegedly took the law into their own hands and assaulted two suspected robbers, leaving one with 33 stitches in the head.
Ottery residents Mogamat Zain Jacobs, 27, and his friend Craig Hammond, 28, were caught after they, and a third man, allegedly robbed a 46-year-old man of his cellphone in Plantation Road, Parkwood, on Sunday afternoon. It is not clear whether the third suspect had been assaulted.
Jacobs was left with 33 stitches to the head and three stitches to the arm, while Hammond sustained bruising and swelling to the cheek and lip.
During their court appearance yesterday they told the magistrate that they had been assaulted by the 6th Street Neighbourhood Watch, according to Hammond’s mother Rochelle Dilgee.
However, a member of the 6th Street Neighbourhood Watch, who asked that his name be withheld, has denied the assault, saying the man who'd been robbed beat up one of the suspects.
The suspects were taken to Victoria Hospital, where they were treated for their injuries. They are being held at Pollsmoor Prison.
“It is very unfair that the boys got beaten up. They were already caught; the police were already on their way; why did they have to hit them so badly? I saw them and they were not in good shape,” said Dilgee.
Hammond was her only offspring and as a matter of principle she would take the matter further because she felt strongly it was "not right to beat people up".
Jacobs’s mother, Wagieda Jacobs, 46, said she was concerned for her son as he was not healthy.
But the member of the neighbourhood watch was adamant: “It was not our members, they came on the scene and found the guy beaten up. After the suspects took the cellphone, they ran in different directions.
"The victim caught up with one of them and beat him up. People think neighbourhood watches are a bunch of hot-blooded hooligans, but that is not our stance.”
He said their mandate was not to beat people up.