[ad_1]
Members of armed communities and vigilante groups have stepped in to fight unrest in South Africa, taking matters into their own hands and sometimes fueling violence as security forces struggle to restore order.
Undermanned and heavily reliant on private security companies, police were quickly overwhelmed when riots and looting first broke out last week in southeastern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province. , triggered by the imprisonment of former president accused of corruption Jacob Zuma.
Thousands of troops were deployed to provide reinforcements as violence spread in Johannesburg, the country’s financial center.
But with tensions still high in parts of KZN and a death toll of over 100, some concerned citizens have taken up arms to protect their communities and property.
Such popular mobilizations can easily turn violent and deadly in a country where it is not uncommon to own a handgun.
AFP journalists witnessed a particularly brutal incident on Wednesday, when dozens of local suburban minibus operators beat seven township residents caught rummaging through the wreckage of a ransacked shopping center in the south-east of Johannesburg.
Undermanned and heavily reliant on private security companies, police were quickly overwhelmed when riots and looting first broke out last week. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP) The victims, which included two women, crouched helplessly against a metal door, wide-eyed and screaming in pain as the crowd hugged them with whips, sticks and rusty metal rods.
A man trying to escape was hit on the head with a glass bottle and dragged back, blood streaming down his neck.
Eager to show off their prowess, the group proudly paraded to the police vans parked outside the mall’s main entrance.
There they delivered their captives, whose faces were swollen and their hands were tightly tied behind their backs. Some were released on the spot.
Residents had gathered in a nearby cemetery around the body of a teenager, who was allegedly shot dead earlier in the day.
Acting Presidential Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni on Thursday warned of “a situation in which members of the public disagree with the law after their attempts to protect … their lives and theirs.”
“Don’t infringe on the rights of others and take justice into your own hands,” she said.
Community defense tactics
“South Africa is run by crowds,” Durban-based political scientist Xolani Dube said.
“When you have so many unregulated security companies and guns going around… he asked, noting that the police and military were poorly equipped.
Deadly clashes erupted over the weekend between armed residents and suspected looters in the city of Phoenix, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Durban, witnesses said.
A woman, a suspected looter, is dragged out of a vandalized store where she was caught by a group of community vigilantes. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP) Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Thursday that racial tensions have fueled community protection efforts in Phoenix, where the majority of residents are of Indian descent.
Fifteen people have reportedly been killed in the city since the violence began, he said.
Unverified images that circulated on Twitter showed black men being beaten along with the hashtag #PhoenixMassacre.
This week, Cele condemned “vigilantism” and urged citizens to work with the police rather than setting up parallel structures.
In Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KZN, local volunteers armed with everything from paintball guns to baseball bats, take turns surveying residential suburbs and shopping malls.
Resident Bernie Naidoo, 43, told AFP the situation remained calm, with grateful civilians providing food and coffee to help their protectors cope with the cold winter nights.
“You will see some [police] vehicles circulating, but they are vastly outnumbered, ”said Naidoo, an investment advisor.
“It could certainly escalate into clashes,” he added. “That’s exactly why the guys are arming themselves.”
Citizens have also gathered peacefully around shopping malls in Johannesburg and Pretoria, forming human chains to deter potential looters.
“Armed company”
Security expert Johan Burger cautioned against labeling all community security initiatives “vigilance”.
Informal policing is prevalent in crime-ridden South Africa, where most cannot afford the services of private security companies that protect upper- and middle-income households. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP) “But in a country like ours, where the state often fails to protect people and property, there is a vacuum,” said Burger, a consultant at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.
Informal policing is prevalent in crime-ridden South Africa, where most cannot afford to buy private security companies that protect upper- and middle-income households.
“You cannot separate the current unrest from the very brutalized history of South Africa and militarized society,” said Tim Hughes, spokesman for the South African Self-Protection Alliance, lobbying against a proposal. prohibition of the right to own firearms for personal safety.
The latest violence “deepens the feeling of insecurity and almost forces people to turn to arms,” he said.
Source link
