PORT ELIZABETH - A Port Elizabeth father has been arrested after he allegedly beat to death a man he believed had raped his 7-year-old daughter.
Police spokesperson, Captain André Beetge said the 36-year-old father was arrested on Tuesday for the murder of the 52-year-old man that was suspected of raping the child.
Beetge said it was alleged that on Saturday at about 22:50 the victim Mava Fundakubi, 52, was severely assaulted in De Vos Crescent, Shukushukuma at Motherwell after it was suspected by community members that he had raped the little girl.
While the girl and her mother were at the Motherwell Health Centre, Fundakubi was taken into the street and fatally assaulted by a large group of people.
Beetge said investigators established that the child had not been raped and a search for the killers of Fundakubi ensued.
The father of the girl handed himself over to police on Tuesday. He alleges that he went to Fundakubi's house and assaulted him in the street after other people joined him.
The father was arrested and will face a charge of murder. Police are still searching for his accomplices.
Motherwell Cluster Commander, Major General Dawie Rabie repeated his warning to community members that vigilantism will not be tolerated: "An innocent man was killed by community based on a rumour and did not even wait to verify the truth of it. We are urging our communities to give information of suspected crimes to the police and not to take the law into their own hands. The persons involved were killers and the police and the law will treat them as killers. I am urging our community to identify these killers in order for the law to be enforced and these murderers to be brought before court."