Cape Town - The man who was set alight and murdered during a mob justice attack in Parkwood, Cape Town, on Tuesday was innocent, say police.
This comes after residents in the area alleged that the victim, who was driving a Toyota Avanza, had tried to snatch a child in the area.
Hundreds of residents came out, beat the unidentified man to a pulp and then set him and his vehicle alight on the open field next to the M5.
Videos of the incident went viral across social media platforms.
The 31-year-old man from Dunoon died on the scene due to his injuries.
Reports have indicated that the innocent man was an e-hailing driver.
Speaking to the Daily Voice, Grassy Park police station commander Colonel Dawood Laing said investigations revealed no proof of an attempted kidnapping and the community was on edge following unconfirmed reports on social media of kidnappings.
But Laing has warned that those taking the law into their own hands will be arrested.
He said detectives questioned the security guard and a nurse at the clinic where the snatching supposedly took place. However, no evidence was found of any kind of kidnapping.
“This is mass hysteria caused by social media and the spreading of fake news.
“We are just as worried about kidnappings, but if you look at the actual reported cases, you will see it’s not near as many as reported on social media.
“Now people have taken the law into their own hands and we are already identifying those responsible from the videos circulating. Arrests are imminent,” Laing said.
Sharing his sentiments of the hysteria being spread across communities on the Cape Flats, the chairperson of the Mitchells Plain Cluster Community Police Board, Rafique Foflonker, urged residents to let common sense prevail and not accept and share unverified news reports.
“Imagine you are arguing with your young child in the street and you need to force them into the car to go home, or to school, or to church. Then, someone shouts ‘kidnapping’. You could be in a lot of trouble. Imagine if your child did this to spite you.
“Let common sense prevail. Don’t react violently and with prejudice simply based on someone’s word. Don’t become polarised by groups of people acting on instinct. Sometimes entire groups of people can mislead themselves, and together they may take even greater risks and may make really bad ‘group-think’ decisions,” Foflonker said.
He said this did not take away from the fact that communities do have the right to be upset about the crime and violence in communities.
However, Foflonker said it was equally troubling for communities to act with extreme prejudice to attack and/or kill an innocent person falsely accused of being a criminal.
“Destroying property and taking the life of someone’s mother, father, son or daughter and perhaps the breadwinner in the family is horrible and does not serve justice in any way. In fact, it is an even greater crime with so many more victims as a result,” he said.
He urged communities to join hands and unite in the fight against crime and called for the support in the local community policing forums (CPF) to build stronger partnerships with the police.
IOL