Alarming rise in public executions via mob justice
Publish date: 16 September 2019
Issue Number: 841
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Corruption
Among the alarming statistics produced by the SAPS last week was an indication of the number of people killed by mob violence. In her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, Carmel Rickard looks at those figures, and at a case that illustrates the reality of popular executions. The case concerns a woman charged with the murder of a man suspected to have stolen a cellphone that belonged to a member of her family. He was stripped naked, bound with wire hand and foot, and beaten to death. His executioners were a group of people within a community fed up because they felt the police did not help them catch criminals.