Comments made by ANC provincial executive member Andile Lili that criminals should be “killed immediately and brutally” incites mob justice and must be withdrawn, the DA said on Wednesday.

“If he does not withdraw his statements, the DA will lay a charge against him of inciting violence,” DA Western Cape spokesperson Liza Albrecht said.

She said if the ANC did not reject Lili, who is the party’s provincial executive member, they would be seen to be agreeing with his statement.

“In a country where crime and violence is so prevalent, Mr Lili has shown shocking negligence and recklessness.”

The DA gave Lili until the end of Wednesday to withdraw his statement, or they would lay a charge against him.

Lili, who is the leader of the Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement, was not immediately available for comment.

On Tuesday, Lili addressed a cheering crowd of supporters outside the Bellville Magistrate’s Court, where he had appeared briefly with eight others for sentencing procedures. Lili, along with the eight, had been found guilty of contravening the Civil Aviation Act in February after dumping human faeces at the Cape Town International Airport two years ago.

The matter was postponed.

Lili told the crowd that he was not satisfied with the country’s justice system.

“Sometimes [criminals] are arrested… but the justice system releases them. So the only thing we can do is to kill immediately if we find a criminal.

“We must kill them, comrades! We are liberating ourselves from criminals. Police are trying, but the justice system is failing us.”

He said the justice system was biased towards government and against the poor.

“They kill today, tomorrow they are released. They are raping today, tomorrow they are released. They are stealing today, tomorrow they are released. They have become powerful in our communities.

“If they are raping, you must kill them immediately. If they are stealing, we must kill them immediately. And we must kill them brutally, the same way that they are [hurting] our sisters, our mothers and our parents,” he said.

The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) has also hit out at Lili for his comments, which they say undermined the rule of law.

“Such reckless and dangerous comments are a call to murder,” the SJC’s Axolile Notywala said.

“We know that criminals terrorise communities and are released on bail back into those same communities. We know there are police members who are corrupt, who are complacent, who are rude to people laying complaints. We know that cases take years to complete in our court system and that criminals get away with crime.”

However, this did not warrant Lili’s comments, said the SJC.

Notywala urged Lili to use his platform as a community leader and a member of the ANC to put pressure on the police, the justice system and government to ensure that the necessary action be taken. News24