By Baldwin Ndaba
Just a week after four people were killed in vigilante attacks in Soweto, a 19-year-old man was saved from another mob attack - this time in Orange Farm - after being accused of armed robbery.
Freelance photographer, Eddie Kambule, who led Kinos Hlatshwayo's dramatic rescue on Sunday, said the mob was threatening to necklace the suspect.
She said the crowd's anger increased after police took more than an hour to arrive at the scene of the crime.
| 'Corrupt and irresponsible' |
"Community members became highly agitated when the police failed to arrive at the scene and then decided to make plans and set his body on fire.
Continues Below ↓
"The mob had already made plans to buy petrol, while a tyre was put next to his body. I pleaded with them and managed to calm them for a while before a patrol unit came," Kambule said.
She had earlier phoned the Orange Farm police station to tell them of the mob attack, but the police did not initially respond. Hlatshwayo was eventually saved when a police unit on a routine patrol drove into the area.
He was taken to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
Hlatshwayo was on Monday still in a serious condition in hospital.
The residents had accused Hlatshwayo and his two friends, who managed to escape, of robbing a woman of her jewellery at gunpoint.
Hlatshwayo had allegedly confessed to having staged the robbery together with his friends.
Kambule said: "The community is sick and tired of the spiralling crime in the area. They accused the local police of being corrupt and irresponsible."
The Gauteng provincial Commissioner of Police, Sharma Maharaj condemned the latest vigilante attack.
The commissioner's spokesperson Director Henriette Bester said the perpetrators would be hunted and brought to book. She asked members of the public to give the police their co-operation.
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
