CAPE TOWN – Police are investigating a brutal attack in Phillipi, near Cape Town, after residents discovered two charred bodies on Sunday.
Their identities are not known but reports suggest they may have been accused of a crime – with the community taking the law into its own hands.
“People get so upset that when they call police they don’t respond immediately and then they will discover victims of people found here killed in the morning,” said Nyanga Community Policing Forum member Martin Makhasi.
“The biggest challenge here is that nobody tells us who killed those people.”
The SAPS still needs to identify the bodies but they are investigating a case of double murder.
No arrests have been made and police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
Makhasi said that there was insufficient policing in the area and the community was becoming increasingly frustrated by high levels of crime.
He said that although he understood the community’s grievances, mob justice was not the answer.
“People must not take law into their own hands, we understand their frustrations, we are engaging with the police management,” Makhasi said.
“On the 27th of April we held a march to the Nyanga police station. One of the main reasons for that march was to say we can no longer negotiate on the issue of provision for additional police stations.”
The CPF said this was the latest in a string of incidents to take place in the area in recent weeks and with dwindling trust between police and the community, they had little faith that the suspects would be brought to book.
– eNCA
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