Cape Town - Mob justice has claimed the lives of three men in the Lwandle informal settlement near Strand. The bodies of the men were found burnt to ashes on Sunday.
The community reacted after a man was robbed of his cellphone and wallet.
The situation had returned to normal by Sunday afternoon with residents doing laundry and some making their way home from church.
But for Nosiphiwo Maqoma – mother of Athathule Maqoma who was burnt to death – it was a sombre Sunday.
She said she was sad because she would never see her son again.
A weeping Maqoma said she had never had any problems with her son who lived alone in the informal settlement.
“My son never robbed anyone before and he didn’t rob that man on Sunday.
“His friend is the one who did it and they killed him because the stolen cellphone was in his possession,” she said.
She added that the man who had committed the robbery had told the mob that Maqoma was not involved, but they had killed him anyway.
Nosipho Xungu, mother of one of the alleged robbers, Lwazi Xungu, said this was not the first time her son had robbed someone.
“When Lwazi is high from the dagga he smokes he always does bad stuff, and I have been asking him to stop smoking but he never listened and now he is dead.”
Xungu said she would miss her son because he would always help her clean the house.
She said he “was a very neat person”.
Community leader Mandla Moyakhe said he was surprised to hear what the community had done.
“We are new in this area… and I was surprised to hear that residents beat and burnt three men; it’s not our style,” said Moyakhe.
Although he had never heard about anything Maqoma had done wrong, Moyakhe said he might not have robbed people from his own community.
Police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana confirmed that the incident took place on Sunday morning at about 2.30am at the Asanda Village in Lwandle.
Kinana said police received reports of the killings while they were allegedly in progress and when the police arrived at the scene they saw a group of people chanting songs.
“As the police drove further into the area they came across three burnt bodies, one with a concrete block on his chest,” he said.
He said the circumstances surrounding this incident were being investigated and a murder case was opened but no arrests had been made.
Cape Argus