PIENAAR – A man estimated to be in his early 20s, who was accused of theft, died after allegedly being severely assaulted by the furious community members at Mkhumulakheyiza section.
According to Lt Jabu Ndubane, the unknown man landed himself in hot water after he was apparently attacked by a mob after he had allegedly been caught stealing in another house.
It’s believed that he sustained serious injuries to his body.
“We received a call from a concerned community member who was passing by the mob and we rushed to the scene. When we arrived at the scene, we found the victim’s lifeless body lying on the ground,” said Ndubane. So far no arrests have been made.
He appealed to the community members not to take the law into their own hands and emphasised that they must call the police.
“We condemn mob justice. Community members who have information must call us so that we can arrest the suspect and do a proper investigation regarding the allegations against him,” added Ndubane.
Meanwhile, this publication also learnt that an elderly person is fighting for his life at Themba Hospital after he was allegedly brutally assaulted by community members when he was trying to save his son from a mob.
Police also confirmed this incident as Ndubane said, “It’s true that an elderly person was assaulted by a mob. It’s reported that a group of people who were singing political songs or slogans, came to the house and started to attack a young man.
When his father realised that his son was being assaulted with a bottle, he intervened. That’s when the mob turned on him.
“We don’t know the motive for the attack and no arrests have been made, but we are doing our best to find out exactly what happened,” said Ndubane.
Mpumalanga News learnt that in this area mob justice has turned out to be a normal way of life. Such incidents started to make headlines since last year where residents, including children, started to witness shocking incidents of mob justice in broad daylight.
Police also confirmed that mob justice is still a challenge. He added, “We still have a long way to go when it comes to teaching our people about the disadvantages of taking the law into their own hands.
We have to revisit our people to remind them about our role as police in the community because they can’t carry on like that and assault people because in some incidents they don’t have proof,” he concluded.
