OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 1.00pm.
ANGRY Eerste River residents on Monday night demolished a derelict house believed to be used as a Naughty Boys gang stronghold after a 14-year-old girl was gang-raped and stabbed there at the weekend.
Valencia Farmer died in Tygerberg Hospital on Monday after uttering the names of two of eight youths who dragged her to the house, brutalised her and left her for dead.
With 42 stab wounds and her throat slit she crawled into the street, where she attracted the attention of a neighbour who came to her aid.
As residents smashed the house down on Monday night, they threatened to take the law into their own hands if the men arrested for Valencia’s killing were released on bail.
Men with power tools and hammers began tearing down the walls of the house.
Two men, Glenville Faro, (18) and Johannes Kriel, (22) appeared in the Kleinvlei Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning in connection with the murder. The case was postponed to Thursday.
Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete on Tuesday morning visited Farmer’s family and spoke to the outraged Eerste River community.
He also visited the family of six-year-old Veronique Maans whose body was found in dense bushes in Mitchells Plain last Thursday.
He promised to deploy more police patrols in the area and urged people not to take the law into their own hands.
Angry residents called for the reinstatement of the death penalty and said the police were incompetent and ineffectual.