Twelve people were arrested after a second night of vigilantism against suspected drug dealers at Mitchells Plain in Cape Town, police said on Wednesday.
Captain Randall Stoffels said about 1 000 people marched to three homes of suspected drug dealers. The top floor of a double-storey house was burnt down. Police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the crowd, but no injuries were reported.
He said 12 people were arrested under the Regulation of Gatherings Act. They were later released on warning, and will appear in court on Thursday.
On Tuesday, police opened a case of public violence against a crowd that vandalised houses and cars thought to belong to drug sellers at Lentegeur in Mitchells Plain.
Superintendent Billy Jones said about 400 residents of Lentegeur on Monday night damaged six houses and 12 vehicles belonging to alleged drug dealers.
The raids this week followed the Sunday-night murder of Mitchells Plain neighbourhood watch member Abduraghman Sydow (48), who was killed outside a house in Lentegeur by two unidentified men. The house outside which he was killed was reportedly a smokkelhuis, a house where liquor or drugs are illegally sold.
Sydow was though to have gone there to tell the occupants the neighbourhood watch would come there later that night to see what was going on.
A murder docket has been opened but no arrests have been made.
Western Cape minister of community safety Leonard Ramatlakane condemned the raids on Tuesday.
”We understand and welcome the position by residents to reject activities of drug dealing and coming out to expose houses that are used as outlets to trade in drugs.
”However, we are not in support of actions of vigilantism that communities such as those of Lentegeur resort to in voicing their anger. Last night’s actions in Lentegeur were an act of crimes being committed. I can therefore not support such actions by the residents of Lentegeur,” he said.
Communities should not allow their anger and frustration in the fight against drugs to get the better of them, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool.
He said it is because the provincial government understands communities’ anger and frustration that it has launched a comprehensive strategy against drugs and gangs.
”However, blind vigilantism will turn back all our progress,” he said in a statement. ”Just as we are reaching focus in the fight against drugs, it appears that police energies are being directed to watch the actions of vigilantes. In fighting to uphold the law, we cannot become lawless.”
He said authorities have been putting sustained pressure on alleged drug dealers, both at the ”high flyer” level and on the ground, where an entire gang, the Fancy Boys, has been convicted. Drug lords have been arrested and drug houses closed where communities brought proof to police. — Sapa