'People laughed as robbers died'

2006-12-26 12:16

Johannesburg - The South African government's continued failure to bring crime under control is leading a growing number of citizens to start taking the law into their own hands, often with deadly results.

"It is sometimes justifiable," says Frits Kreil, who runs a self-styled "community policing forum" in Johannesburg's northern Randburg suburb.

"People are fed up with crime and resort to killing to protect their lives and those of their loved ones."

In one of the latest such incidents, three members of an armed gang were killed when a local at a pub in the suburb of Emmarentia opened fire as they robbed and pistol-whipped customers earlier this month.

The locals raised their glasses as the robbers lay dying and then rang the police. As one of the drinkers told the Beeld newspaper: "They died slowly, we all stood and laughed."

Police don't come

While reluctant to give their names, regulars at the pub voiced few regrets about the incident to AFP after the shooting.

"We cannot live our lives in fear any more," said one. "Whenever we feel threatened or attacked, we shoot and call the police later."

The feeling that summoning the police is pointless is widespread in one of the world's most crime-ridden countries. More than half a million burglaries or robberies were reported last year while 18 528 people were murdered.

Kriel said that he would neither "criticise nor condone" the practice of opening fire before calling the police but acknowledged that it went on.

"Citizens feel they live in danger, and sometimes waiting for cops is a huge time delay," he said.

While the white middle-class can afford to invest in hi-tech security systems in order to prevent their homes being targeted, residents in the black townships cannot afford such luxuries.

Austin Dube, who runs a scheme similar to Kriel's in the Alexandra township, said his fellow neighbourhood patrollers had more trust from the local community than the regular police.

"We get complaints and also realise that the police do not respond in time to emergency calls because they use cars for their own purposes," said Dube.

"This promotes the idea of people dealing with criminals their own way. They are fed up," he added.

The police and government both claim that they are beginning to make inroads into the crime rate but analysts say that people are feeling as unsafe as ever.

"The reason citizens respond the way they do is because they have lost confidence not only in the police but the whole criminal justice system," said Antoinette Louw of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

"More often than not, people are told there are no (police) vehicles, or personnel. That is why they take the law into their own hands," she added.

The first signs of South Africans taking the law into their own hands was seen in the late 1990s when kangaroo courts began springing up, particularly in rural areas.

Lately however the phenomenon of seeking instant justice has been on the rise.

When a group of street vendors caught up with an armed robber soon after he raided a garage in Durban this week, they beat him so badly that he needed life-saving treatment in hospital.

Two suspected rapists were killed in the same city several weeks ago when a mob dragged them from a police car and stoned them to death shortly after their arrest.

National police spokesperson Phuti Setati said taking the law into one's own hands was "not allowed, and will never be tolerated."

"We do not encourage people to go around taking the law into their own hands. Instead if possible, we encourage them to effect citizen's arrest and call the police," he told AFP.

- AFP