Africa-Press – South-Africa. Police have arrested two people in connection with the murders of five suspected robbers who were beaten up and burnt to death in Delft, Cape Town.
The arrests were made in the early hours of Friday morning. Police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut said the two suspects were aged 30 and 35.
“The badly mutilated bodies of five men were discovered in an informal settlement in Delft after they were killed and set alight. Information at our disposal led us to believe that the murders were motivated by vigilantism and that the victims were accused by the community of having committed a crime in the area,” he said.
Traut said the police condemned acts of vigilantism in the strongest possible terms. He added that their investigation was focusing on the local community, as they had reason to believe that the suspects were from the same area.
“The investigation took the integrated investigation team to the informal settle settlement where the murders were committed and where they arrested two suspects aged 30 and 35 on charges of murder at around 03:00 this morning (Friday).
“Both suspects are expected to make their court appearance in Bellville on Monday. The investigation of the mass murders is still underway, and more arrests could be affected in due course,” he said.
News24 previously reported that allegations were that the community accused the victims, aged 25 and 36, of breaking into a house and stealing a cellphone.
Members of the community caught the men, beat them up, and set them alight.
News24 understands that some Delft residents had seen the victims breaking into homes. They were also allegedly seen breaking into a home on Christmas Eve, where a cellphone was stolen.
Some residents then decided to look for the alleged perpetrators, who were rounded up, beaten, and then set alight.
The chairperson of the Delft Community Policing Forum, Charles George, said the community was fed-up with the crime.
“People are becoming frustrated with the justice system in this country, and I’m afraid they are starting to take the law into their own hands. We don’t agree with this, but people are gatvol of all this crime happening on a daily basis,” he said.
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