{"id":12361,"date":"2012-07-13T00:32:18","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T22:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/feature-in-south-africas-slums-mob-justice-rules\/"},"modified":"2012-07-13T00:32:18","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T22:32:18","slug":"feature-in-south-africas-slums-mob-justice-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/feature-in-south-africas-slums-mob-justice-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE-In South Africa’s slums, mob justice rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Wendell Roelf<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

KHAYELITSHA, South Africa, July 12<\/span>(Reuters) – Beaten and set
\nalight, Ncedile Gigi’s unrecognisable remains have not been
\nburied since March, when a mob fed up with poor policing took
\nthe law into their own hands, torching the 26-year-old in a
\ncrime-ridden South African township.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Accused of theft, Gigi was one of three men who had
\npetrol-laced tyres shoved over their shoulders in Khayelitsha, a
\nshanty town 40 km (25 miles) east of Cape Town.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The heat fused his body with that of another and the charred
\nremains were then left on a sandy patch of ground where children
\nnormally play soccer – a macabre warning to others and a grim
\nreminder of the social problems that plague Africa’s biggest and
\nmost developed economy.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

For South Africans, the violence also evokes the dark days
\nof apartheid when suspected collaborators of the white-minority
\nregime were executed by “necklace” – a car tyre wedged over the
\ntorso, followed by a can of petrol, and then a match.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Police removed the bodies a few hours after the attack but,
\nfive months later, have yet to release two of them for burial
\nbecause they do not know which is which.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The way my brother died is very painful. We are waiting for
\nDNA tests,” Gigi’s older sister, Kholiswa, told Reuters in her
\nhome, a tin and wood shack. “Maybe if I was there I could try to
\nstop them – maybe just a beating only and not go so far as to
\nburn him.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The death of Gigi and 10 other young men in the township
\nsince January reflects an alarming loss of trust in the police
\nin South Africa’s slums, where rates of robbery, rape and murder
\nare among the highest in the world.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“This is actually a deeply worrying trend for the police and
\ngovernment because citizens do not have faith in formal
\ninstitutions and are resorting to violence,” said Hennie van
\nVuuren, director of the Cape Town office for the Institute for
\nSecurity Studies.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Wendell Roelf KHAYELITSHA, South Africa, July 12(Reuters) – Beaten and set alight, Ncedile Gigi’s unrecognisable remains have not been buried since March, when a mob fed up with poor policing took the law into their own hands, torching the 26-year-old in a crime-ridden South African township. Accused of theft, Gigi was one of three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}