EDITORIAL | Mob justice can never be condoned but communities deserve to feel safe

A mob justice attack in the Zandspruit informal settlement in Johannesburg last week has shocked the community to the core. Nine people were dragged from their homes, rounded up in the streets, brutally assaulted and then burnt alive. The mob who attacked them claimed the gang was behind a spate of robberies in the area. 

The community is blaming the police for having to take the law into their own hands. “There are a lot of drugs, gangsterism and lawlessness in our township,” resident Solly Moagi told the Sunday Times. “We can’t condone or justify what happened but we can’t shy away from the fact that the community has been pushed too far. A lot of horrible things happen to women and children around here, and we don’t even have proper services. It’s a mess.”

Police spokesperson Kay Makhubela urged residents to report it if it were true that their calls for help went unanswered. He also told SABC news that a police van sent in to intervene was chased away and stoned by about 200 people. 

The situation is untenable. The community feels it is being neglected by those who should be protecting them, while the police in this instance say their officials were sent away.

The situation is untenable. The community feels it is being neglected by those who should be protecting them, while the police in this instance say their officials were sent away. Both sides are caught in a vicious circle of blame and frustration, with neither really seeing a away out.

A combination of under-resourced police stations and socio-economic conditions that see people turning to crime to make a living does not bode well for our future. Police minister Bheki Cele has his work cut out.

Gareth Newham, of the Institute for Security Studies, said mob justice was “increasing at a rate of knots” and was the result of a deteriorating police force, political deployments and crisis in top leadership.

Added to that is another layer of complication: independent researcher David Bruce told Sunday Times Daily a bias within the system sees affluent communities favoured above poor ones. He said one of the crimes most feared — and most common — is street robbery. That is an interesting observation, since a spate of robberies appears to have been the spark in Zandspruit.

Though one can sympathise with the frustration of those communities who do have reason to feel neglected, unlawfulness can never be condoned, especially not when it comes with such brutality. And while one can sympathise with those in the police van, probably too scared to confront the angry mob, law enforcers turning their backs on a hideous crime will not solve the problem. 

Police minister Bheki Cele last week delivered his R96.3bn budget vote in parliament, which included a cut to visible policing, probably one of the key operational aspects that would make places such as Zandspruit safer. He allocated R100m to gender-based violence, spoke about a turnaround plan for police stations, a plan to reduce the murder rate and offered solutions to a backlog in DNA testing.

Cele made some right noises, but it remains to be seen if any real improvement in the police force will follow.