SAPS warns community against mob justice

The SAPS urges the community to refrain from taking the law into their own hands. Mob justice is a type of extrajudicial punishment or retaliation where a person suspected of a crime or transgression is often beaten, humiliated, and sometimes left nude, many times done in front of a crowd of people.

Suspected home burglars, those accused of sexual assault or the most common, cable theft suspects, have suffered the common fate of being beaten or killed.

Many justify this behaviour by saying they are helping the police by reducing the number of criminals who roam the streets, but the SAPS reminds the community this act is unacceptable and unlawful.

Springs SAPS station commander, Brigadier Raymond Buthelezi, strongly condemns these acts of violence.

“Irrespective of how angry a person or community is, the law cannot be taken into their own hands.

“Any acts of criminal nature either seen or perceived must be reported to the police,” Buthelezi said.

One may forget that an accused or suspected person still has the right to a fair trial. The ‘innocent until proven guilty’ notion may not be supported by everyone but this is the notion that the justice system operates on.

Chapter 2 of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act 108 of 1996 entrenches the fundamental rights of every person.

The presumption of innocence or the right of the accused person to be presumed innocent until proven guilty embodied in this section is one of the rights.

Buthelezi continued to explain the community should abide by the law and call the police to inform them of any suspects.

“Call the police if you arrested an alleged suspect to avoid further criminal acts through mob justice.

“The community must refrain from making assumptions without verifying the facts,” Buthelezi said.

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