Komani police are investigating a murder case after a 33-year-old man accused of rape was brutally killed by a mob of angry Newvale residents on Tuesday.
Just as was the case with 27-year-old Thoriso Themane, who was killed in a mob attack in Polokwane, the attack on the Komani man was caught on cellphone footage.
The incident occurred in broad daylight, while bystanders took pictures and videos while a mob continued assaulting the man.
The man was allegedly killed in retaliation for the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl on Saturday.
In the video that was widely shared in Komani, the naked man can be seen covered in blood while a group of residents, most of them women, can be heard talking in the background.
No one else was shown in the video.
Police spokesperson Captain Namhla Mdleleni said there have been no arrests in connection with the incident yet.
“On arrival [at the scene] the police found the victim, a 33-year-old man with bruises on his body and he was taken to Frontier Hospital where he later died,” she said.
Mdleleni urged people not to take the law into their own hands but encouraged them to report crime incidents to the police.
A witness, Nolumanyano Wellem, described the incident. “On Tuesday he [man] passed the girl’s home where the girl identified him [as the alleged rapist].
“The community attacked him and beat him.”
Wellem said the mob allegedly used a steel pole to batter him and castrated him after beating him badly.
“Most of the people who attacked the man were women. They claimed that he had been raping people in Newvale and said they had had enough of him,” she said.
Another witness, Zolile Bana, said when he arrived at the scene he tried to stop the assault, to no avail.
“I had no choice but to call the police. They took about two hours to arrive and when they did, it was two women who waited at the police van until the ambulance came to pick up the deceased man ,” he said.
Bana said the mob had mercilessly assaulted the man, molested him and poured water on him when he showed signs of fainting.
Ward councillor Ongama Adonis said this was not the first mob attack in his ward.
“As a result of the attack I called a meeting, we tried to convince people not to take the law into their own hands.
“We ended up establishing street committees which would liaise with the police every time there is such an incident,” he said.
Adonis they were hopeful that through the street committees there would be better working relations with the police which might bring mob killings to an end..
“We know he is alleged to have done wrong things to people but he did not deserve to die like this,” he said...