A surge in crime and a lack of trust in the police are pushing ordinary people to take the law into their town hands, and mob violence has become a reality in communities. In the past week an incident which took place in the Lwandle informal settlement near Strand, saw a mob of people violently attacked three men for robbery. The attack was fatal as this left the men dead. When police arrived on the scene based on a tip off they received, they found the burnt bodies of three men in which one had a concrete block on his chest.

This level of hate transpired after an incident in which the men stole a man’s cell phone and wallet. This shows that the mob’s hunger for vengeance consumed them to such a level that they took matters into their own hands and literally took the lives of three men.

Lizette Lancaster, the manager at the crime and information hub for the Institute of Security Studies said many communities are gripped by fear of crime driven by the high crime rate.

“Communities often do not have confidence in the police and do not trust the police to protect them. Those who can afford it, invest in private security and target hardening (burglar bars, security gates, alarms, dogs, firearms) to safeguard themselves and their families. Those who cannot afford these measures often feel powerless to protect their families and homes.”

The crime statistics suggest that low income communities are more likely to experience high levels of violence and crime on a daily basis.

“Any incident could be ‘the last straw’ and could lead to an outburst of emotions and frustration where ordinary, normally law-abiding persons engage in mob violence/ vigilante activities. Protest research by the ISS and others show that significant numbers of mostly peaceful crime related protests take place in South Africa annually. However, community frustration may boil over if groups feel that their situation is not improving.”

Despite having crimes that are pushed by a direct criminal attack or even a dispute in an opinion, our country has experienced a state of xenophobia in which groups of people react to the situation of foreign nationals being in our cities.

“The reasons behind these xenophobic or hate crime attacks are complex and more research is needed to understand these matters. In addition to the frustrations of community members with their lives of poverty and unemployment, certain individuals take out their frustrations on vulnerable groups that become proxy targets of their anger. Often the anger is also fuelled by xenophobic or homophobic beliefs and values.”

The ‘sheep mentality’ stems a lot from the fact that people feel vulnerable to give into what needs to be done because they fear being looked down on and in some cases find their need to have to be loyal to a certain sect.

“We need effective and professional policing which is responsive to the needs of communities. We need strong community leaders that condemn violence and take concerns of community members seriously. We need households to be educated in warm and supportive parenting which will help children to recognise that there are other ways to resolve conflict besides violence. We need life skills training to emphasise tolerance of all people irrespective of, amongst others, nationality or sexual orientation,” Lancaster noted.

It is easy to be misled by the influence of mob. All it takes is a common interest and people with similar thinking to jump onto a wagon that leads straight to destruction. Lancaster feels community crime fighting initiatives are vital in this regard.

“Speak to the Community Policing Forums (CPF) and the police for assistance. Get involved in the CPFs. If they do not respond positively, approach the police station cluster commanders or the ward councillor. If a community feels that the police is not doing their job, approach the Department of Community Safety which also deals with complaints against the police.”

According to Lancaster, research shows that young men are the most at risk to become both the victims and perpetrators of crime.

“Vigilantism or mob justice is nothing new and had been practiced by South Africans for centuries. Unfortunately, vigilantism is still rife 20 years after democracy after the initial transformation of the criminal justice system. It shows that a lot more need to be done to make justice accessible to all. Victims will report crimes to the police if they feel that the police will be able to solve these cases and arrest the perpetrators.”

She added that if victims felt that the police are unable to do so and emotions run high, then they are more likely to take the resort to mob justice.

“Off course, often innocent persons are targeted who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The criminal justice system is designed to be fair, impartial and objective with separate law enforcement and court functions and clear rules to ensure a fair trial. Unfortunately, many do not believe this and communities are caught in a cycle of violence which turns our people into criminals if they participate in mob justice.

“We don’t realise it but the way in which we react to any situation shows how we can handle issues. If we have kids around us they would be exposed to the same kind of behaviour and what comes out of this is that our kids watch this growing up.

“Our children are exposed to violence on a daily basis in our homes and in our streets. In turn, it is very likely that they will use violence too to deal with stress and conflict. We need all parties from parents to community leaders, the police and our religious organisations and other community based organisations to speak out and discourage all forms of violence,” she concluded. VOC (Najma Bibi Noor Mahomed)