Pietermaritzburg Child Murder Suspect Allegedly Killed by Mob Justice, South Africans React

• A man who was accused of killing a child in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal has fallen victim to community violence
• The South African Police Service were looking for him after the dead child was found in his house
• The community allegedly attacked him and killed him, and South Africans condemned the incident
• UNISA's Chair of the Department of Criminology and Security Science, School of Criminal Justice, Tinyiku Ngoveni, spoke to Briefly News about the importance of communities working with the police to fight crime

Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News current affairs journalist in Johannesburg, South Africa, covered police investigations and court cases at Daily Sun for over three years.

PIETERMARITZBURG — South Africans condemned the actions of a Pietermaritzburg community after it took the law into its own hands and killed a murder suspect.

Read also

7 killed in Midlands in KwaZulu, SAPS on the hunt for suspects

Murder suspect a victim of mob justice

SABC News reported that the 43-year-old man who was the suspect in a gruesome murder in Pietermaritzburg was killed. The little boy was reportedly found with stab wounds in the suspect's house after he went missing. The boy was allegedly killed because his father owed the suspect R150.

The South African Police Service said the police are investigating a case of murder after the family of the suspect contacted the police. They found the man's body in an alley. When members of the community allegedly found him, they did not report him to the police but allegedly killed him.

UNISA Criminology chair speaks to Briefly News

UNISA's Chair of the Department of Criminology and Security Science, School of Criminal Justice, Tinyiku Ngoveni, recently spoke to Briefly News and called on the Community Policing Forum to work with cops to fight crime.

Read also

KZN SAPS to increase stations and officers in Pietermaritzburg due to increase in crime

"Police officers cannot manage to fight crime alone and win, as a result, members of the community through CPFs must come on board to collaborate with police in fighting crime within their area. CPFs are very critical because members of the community can also monitor and hold accountable police officers on their performance in addressing crime within their area through the established CPFs," he said.

South Africans slam mob justice incident

Netizens on Facebook called the community out for taking the law into their hands.

Rudzani De'ojays Mukhweho said:

"These are the results of useless law enforcement in the country."

Mnisi Sandile said:

"Courts have already started punishing these vigilante groups. They will be held accountable for taking the law into their own hands."

Simon Mogohloane said:

"Some community members are in trouble. Soon, they will be trending on social media, forgetting that they would be incriminating themselves."

Read also

Limpopo pig farm murder suspects remain in jail after judge postpones case

Musa Majola said:

"I keep asking myself if they probably got the wrong person."

Darryl Robertson said:

"Play stupid games and win stupid prizes."

Limpopo man killed in mob justice incident

In a similar article, Briefly News reported that a man from Limpopo was killed by members of the community.

He faced accusations that he was involved in house breakings, and the Limpopo police found the victim dead with multiple injuries.

Source: Briefly News