Cape Town - Rumours and allegations of abductions and kidnapping have some Cape Town communities in a blood-thirsty frenzy, with several incidents of mob justice resulting in the fiery death of at least one person.
During the last three days the police and law enforcement officials say they have responded to at least three violent incidents in Hanover Park, Parkwood and Tafelsig where residents took the law into their own hands, executing vigilante justice on alleged would-be child abductors.
In the most recent incident, which occurred on Tuesday morning, an unidentified man was brutally assaulted and set alight in Parkwood, when an incensed group of residents confronted him for the alleged kidnapping of two young girls from the area earlier that morning.
A resident who witnessed the ordeal, recounted the incident to the Cape Argus, saying that after waking up to news of two girls missing on a community WhatsApp group, a crowd had taken to the streets to search for the girls.
During the search they came upon a man in a gold Avanza, similar to the vehicle allegedly used to abduct the girls.
“As the group made its way around the community, they came across the car on the corners of Hyde Road and the M5. Everyone just assumed that it was the car seen taking the girls. They began hitting and smashing it while there was a man inside.
“He looked like an Uber driver to me and seemed so confused about what was happening,” the resident said.
“However, that didn’t stop the crowd. Before I knew it they dragged him out of it and started beating him, I even saw someone throw a brick on his face. I can’t tell if that’s what killed him or if it was the fire.
“I’m still trying to make sense of what I saw because on top of what people did today, no one has come forward to say their child is missing. There are no missing kids here, and if there are no missing children, who did the people kill?”
Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said Grassy Park police are investigating murder.
“An initial report of the incident indicates that three unknown men were driving in the area in a Toyota Avanza when they were attacked by community members, who then set the vehicle alight. The other two men managed to flee the scene. Suspects are yet to be arrested,” he said.
Grassy Park police station commander Dawood Laing confirmed that there had been no reports of missing children reported to the policing precinct in connection with the incident.
“We can confirm that there were no reports of missing children in Parkwood today. It appears the claims were false.
“However, officers still followed up on them, tracing them to the local clinic where staff confirmed no abduction had taken place,” Laing said.
Although reports of missing children in the Parkwood area were not confirmed, the police in the province are still actively searching for several missing children, women and men.
Among them are Shireen Essop, 34, Kimberly Mubaiwa, 21, Vanessa Mubaiwa, 17, Zoe Jamie-Lee Joshua, 13, Ali Abuker, 17, and 2-month-old Kai-isha Maniers.
In a recent statement, security and medical response app Aura said that between October and December last year, at least 2605 kidnapping cases were reported in South Africa.
About 686 cases more compared with the previous reporting period.
While the shocking numbers paint a grim picture for vulnerable women and children in the country, crime expert Dr Guy Lamb said trends do not show an increase or decrease.
“While we don’t have any detailed data on kidnappings or abductions to say whether they have increased or not.
“Kidnapping cases in all their different instances have been happening for some time in South Africa,” he said.
Lamb said residents living in local communities were resorting to vigilantism out of frustration because of the crime surrounding them, such as gangsterism, drug trafficking and house robberies. He also attributed local communities’ mob justice attacks to the public’s lack of trust in the police.
Community Safety and Police Oversight MEC Reagen Allen said he was deeply concerned about reports of the mob justice attacks in local communities.