Vigilantes running riot

Cape Town has been rocked by a rise in vigilante attacks that have resulted in the deaths of two men and a teenager in the past week.

The latest incident happened on Monday in the Marikana informal settlement when a crime suspect was beaten and torched.

There were two vigilante attacks in and around the city last week.

A man was stoned and left to bleed to death in Lansdowne, and a 16-year-old was beaten up at an informal settlement that is part of Mfuleni township, just outside Cape Town.

He was set alight by residents who accused him of robbery.

Six men suspected of theft were killed in Kraaifontein last month in suspected mob justice rampages.

Ten people were arrested in connection with the Kraaifontein killings.

City of Cape Town head of safety JP Smith said yesterday: "The people are fed up with the repeated offences of criminals and the failure of the justice system to arrest and prosecute them.

"But the inhumanity of their actions is appalling and unjustifiable."

He said that, although the city encouraged the formation of neighbourhood watches in the townships, it had no control over how the groups operated.

"Only the police and the National Prosecuting Authority can change the situation," he said.

Police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said the situation was not out of control because it was only certain "elements" within communities that took the law into their own hands.

"We understand their concerns but [they] must not be used to justify violation of the law," he said.

Johan Burger, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said vigilantism was perpetrated by "illogical opportunists".