BY Malibongwe Dayimani and Bongani Fuzile
A horrific scene played out in North End, East London, this weekend when an angry mob dragged a suspected robber from the back of a police van and stoned and stabbed him to death right in front of two armed police officers.
This is the fourth mob killing in Buffalo City within four weeks. On two of these occasions police have been present.
In the latest incident, at noon on Friday, police on patrol from the Buffalo Flats Police station happened to drive into Park Avenue to find a crowd chasing a man who had allegedly been involved in an attempted armed robbery of a motorist.
East London police spokeswoman Hazel Mqala said the dead man was believed to be part of an armed five-member gang that tried to rob a businessman at gunpoint as he sat in his vehicle.
According to Mqala, the businessman was targeted as he pulled up in front of a shop in Porter Street. The gang smashed his window and demanded cash.
“The driver rolled over to the passenger’s seat and screamed for help from his brothers.”
Mqala said the businessman then chased the gang, which fled on foot.
“One of the suspects lost his balance while running and fell on the ground, losing his firearm in the process.”
The chase, which started at Porter Street, continued into Park Avenue.
The chubby gang member ran out of steam and was left behind by his gang.
At that moment the police officers happened to drive up and managed to steer the fleeing man into the back of their van.
But the crowd pulled him out.
Video footage seen by the Daily Dispatch shows three men pushing a policeman aside and opening the door of a stationery police vehicle and a far larger group starting to assault the man.
They strike him with stones and drag him, one man delivering a single right-hook to the jaw.
One man can be seen using a broom to beat the man while others stone him.
The man tries to run but is caught by another man who appears to stab him.
As the alleged robber collapses to the ground and is stomped on, two policemen can be seen, with firearms in their holsters, watching as the assault unfolds.
A truck driver, who did not want to be named but who captured the footage, told the Dispatch that the police had tried to save the victim.
“The police opened the van and put the man in the back but the crowd pushed that policeman aside and started stoning the man from the van.
“He stood up and stumbled out into the street and that’s when they kept assaulting him until he died.”
The driver of a white Toyota Corolla also tried to disperse the angry mob by driving his car into it, but was forced to evacuate the vehicle when the crowd pelted it with stones.
Mqala said the police could not be blamed as they were “under siege from the crowd of more than 50”.
“They tried their best to save the man, but the two policemen were outnumbered by the mob armed with weapons.
“That is why they called for backup from the Fleet Street police and the flying squad.”
Mqala said officers who were on duty at Jan Smuts stadium abandoned a Cosatu march to rush to the scene.
“The mob retreated when more police started arriving.”
When asked why police had not fired a warning shot, Mqala said police were not allowed to fire a shot in such circumstances.
“We are ruled by section 49, which states that a police member should only fire a shot when their life is in danger.”
She said two suspects had been arrested, but the rest were still at large for the killing of the man, whose identity has yet to be established.
Eyewitness Siyabonga Mzingeli, who works for a car wash business on the corner of Park Avenue and Beaconsfield Road, described seeing the man “being dragged along the street by a large crowd, beating him with steel pipes, stones and sticks”.
“His friends managed to escape.”
Other recent killings were:
l On September 1, 22-year-old Samkelo Mphuthuma, accused of gang-raping a 29-year-old woman, was killed, allegedly by an angry mob in Mdantsane’s NU3. Mphuthuma’s aunt Thenjiswa Magalela, who witnessed the horror, said NU1 police were chased away by angry residents when they tried to intervene;
l Two weeks ago angry Scenery Park residents killed 25-year-old Xolela Maphayi and burned his friend Msindisi Makhanavu following the disappearance of Maphayi’s girlfriend Bongiwe Madondo, 24; and
l Masixole Bhoma, 23, was beaten to death by a mob after trying to rob a man sleeping in his room at a hostel in Cambridge location in East London on Wednesday. — malibongwed@dispatch.co.za
To view the video footage go to Dispatch Live www.dispatchlive.co.za