Watch: Two arrested as residents riot over murder of 11-year-old girl

31 March 2017 - 17:51 By Aron Hyman
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Riot going down in Tafelsig for the murder of Stasha Arendse. 31 March 2017.
Riot going down in Tafelsig for the murder of Stasha Arendse. 31 March 2017.
Image: Gang Ridden Areas in South Africa via Facebook

Two people were arrested for public violence after police took a suspect to the alleged scene of a child's murder.

The suspect was a neighbour who was recently released from prison‚ where he served time for rape‚ according to residents in the Cape Town suburb of Tafelsig and the family of Stacha Arendse‚ 11.

Police could not confirm this.

A video on the "Gang Ridden Areas in South Africa" Facebook group reportedly shows the residents clashing with police as detectives investigated the crime scene.

A search party found Stacha's body behind the Swartklip Sports Centre on a sand dune on Tuesday. Her father‚ Stanley Godfrey‚ said her body was still warm when they found her.

She was reported missing on Monday evening when she failed to return home from a friend's house.

A Tafelsig resident told The Times that the “community wants blood”‚ and that they believed police were protecting the suspect.

Police spokeswoman Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana said “groups of people” turned up for the first appearance of a 31-year-old murder-rape suspect at the Mitchells Plain Magistrate's Court on Friday. No incidents were reported.

On Thursday afternoon protesters trying to burn down the suspect's house clashed with police. “Two suspects aged 23 years were arrested for public violence after protest action erupted in the Mitchells Plain area while the police were busy on the scene of the murder of an 11-year-old girl‚” said Rwexana.

She urged people not to take the law into their own hands but to allow the police to do their work. She warned that any attack on a suspect is as a criminal offence.

Last week‚ 1000 Lavender Hill residents tried to attack a 50-year-old suspect accused of murdering 13-year-old Rene Tracy Roman after police took him to the scene where her decomposing body was found.

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