A suspected thief was killed by a mob in Dunoon, bringing the number of such killings in the city to seven in the past three months.
|||Cape Town - A suspected thief was killed by a mob in Dunoon near Milnerton yesterday, bringing the number of such killings in the city to seven in the past three months.
The latest mob killing in Dunoon is the second there in eight months.
In July an unknown man was killed by a group of men after he attempted to steal goods from a house.
On Monday, the attacked man was taken to Groote Schuur Hospital where he died late last night, and the body had not yet been identified, Forensic Pathology spokesman Zolani Zenzile said.
Residents said the man, with two of his friends, broke into a shack on Silver Leaf Street. The occupant of the shack, who asked not to be named, said the three men kicked down her door and ransacked her home.
“They came in here and took my clothes and anything else they could get.
“My children and my niece, we were eating. My kids started crying and we started making a noise to alert our neighbours to what was going on.
“All my neighbours came out of their homes and to my house. The three (suspected thieves) got scared and wanted to run away.
Two of them managed to escape.” She said one suspected thief who could not escape the mob was dragged down Silver Leaf Street.
“I just saw the guys drag him down the road and shouting. I was really just too scared to go out because I had a feeling that they were going to kill him,” she said.
Resident Jackson Mduna said: “I saw that they dragged the man down the road screaming. They kicked and smacked him in the face while he was being dragged. They got to the open field and all of them picked up stones and starting beating him.
“There was one big stone which was thrown on his chest with some force.”
A resident, who lives adjacent to the open field and who did not want to be named, said: “The men dragged the one guy and took a burning tyre and placed it on his head. The men who burned him all ran towards Potsdam Road.
“I was too scared to go near the body.
“I was scared that I might be next. I waited for police who came about one hour later.”
Moses Nala, a SA Civic Organisation community leader, said Dunoon needed a police station closer to it. “Milnerton police station is about 15km away from Dunoon. Crime is high here and you need police to respond very quickly – not two hours after someone is killed or housebreaking took place.”
Cape Times