Cape’s mob justice hot-spots
People living in Mfuleni and Khayelitsha are more likely to be killed in vigilante attacks than in any other suburb, a study has found.
|||Cape Town - People living in Mfuleni and Khayelitsha are more likely to be killed in vigilante attacks than in any other suburb in Cape Town, a Stellenbosch University study has found. The study, which reviewed mob killings in the Western Cape over a 10-year period, showed that community instigated assaults – or vigilante attacks – affected mainly young men.
More than 420 cases of vigilante killings were analysed at Tygerberg Forensic Pathology Services between January 1, 2003 and the end of December 2012. It showed that most victims died as a result of multiple head injuries from blunt-force trauma.
About 250 fatalities took place in Khayelitsha and 47 in Mfuleni. However, concern was raised about Mfuleni when considering “population numbers per area”.
An analysis shows that the number could be converted to about 73 killed for every 100 000 people living in Mfuleni.
Delft recorded 37 vigilante killings and Kraaifontein, 24. While the ages of those killed varied from 14 to 62 years, young people between 15 and 30 – and almost exclusively male – were the victims of mob justice. Of the 424 vigilante victims, only one was female.
About 42 percent of deaths was as a result of multiple injuries. This was followed by head injuries at 23 percent and blunt force trauma at 14 percent. About 13 percent of those killed sustained “soft tissue” injuries. A combination of blunt and sharp-force trauma accounted for 4 percent of deaths. In many of the cases it was not clear what victims were assaulted with. However, in 21 percent of cases, objects found on the scene included stones, sticks, bricks and sjamboks.
In about 10 percent of attacks there was evidence of restraints, such as bounding of feet and hands. Only 8.5 percent of victims were hospitalised and most died as a result of pneumonia or renal failure due to injuries sustained. Almost 60 percent of all victims were under the influence of alcohol when they were attacked. In 2004, recorded mob killings stood at only 5.4 percent, but in 2008 this number peaked at 14.6 percent before decreasing by 2010 – the year South Africa hosted the Soccer World Cup. In 2011 it increased, reaching 14.4 percent in 2012. In Khayelitsha the alarming regularity of vigilante attacks in 2012 resulted in the establishment of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, which found that there had been a breakdown in trust between the community and police. It also said there were “serious inefficiencies” in the area.
Writing in the SA Medical Journal, Dr Celeste Herbst, lead researcher and senior registrar at Tygerberg Forensic Pathology Services, said the dramatic peak of mob killings in 2008 and its increase again in 2012 could not be explained. However, the drop in 2010 could be attributed to the strict policing enforced during the World Cup. She said the age groups of victims had similarities to previous studies that looked into mob killings.
“It should be noted that even teenagers are falling victims to this type of assault. Another important finding was that ‘necklacing’ fatalities accounted for only 0.9 percent, suggesting that this practice, started during the apartheid era, is no longer common,” she said. Herbst said the low percentage of hospitalisations could also be attributed to the fact that “very few mob attack victims survived long enough to get to hospital”.
Most succumbed to their injuries and died on the scene.
She called for stricter policing protocols where attacks were prevalent, as well as better strategies to combat violence.
Cape Argus