Two suspected rapists were pulled from police vans, castrated, beaten and stoned to death in the Durban township of kwaMashu on Thursday.
The Witness website reported on Friday that the victims were thought to have been part of a gang of rapists who terrorised kwaMashu, attacking 12 families in a single street.
After the frenzied attack, residents seemed jubilant, laughing and casually pointing to where the dead lay.
They said they had had enough, having been plagued and tormented by the serial rapists, who were also infamous in Inanda and Ntuzuma townships.
”We couldn’t sleep any more,” said a woman who stopped going to work as she feared walking in the streets at night.
On Wednesday night, police responded to a call about the gang and searched for the suspects, believed to be residents of kwaMashu.
They found two members of a group of six and arrested them on Thursday morning.
Community members then recognised the pair and grabbed them from the police vehicles.
”Even when we fired several shots in the air, the angry crowd did not stop,” police said.
Police officers driving the vehicles were slightly injured.
No arrests had been made, but the police were investigating a case of public violence and malicious injury to property.
Provincial Community Safety and Liaison minister Bheki Cele condemned the act of communities punishing alleged criminals.
”Nobody is allowed to take the law into their own hands,” he said. – Sapa