Vigilante warning as 14 killed in Cape Town suburb in a week

Following what appears to be a deadly vigilante attack on the night of Wednesday, 10 September, Kraaifontein community leader Gavin Riddles says residents are tired of waiting for a police response to crime in the area — and many are now ready to take the law into their own hands.

The death toll in Kraaifontein alone in the week between Monday, 8 September, and Sunday, 14 September, stands at 14, including the three victims of Wednesday night’s attack.

Police spokesperson Colonel André Traut said police were alerted at about 10pm on 10 September to an incident in La Boheme Street, Wallacedene, where the bodies of the three victims were discovered.

He said preliminary information suggested that the victims were accused by community members of criminal activity and were attacked, killed and then set alight.

“The recent murders in Kraaifontein as well as the overall crime situation left the community frustrated which resulted in them trying to take the law into their own hands,” Riddles told Daily Maverick.

“Three people were killed and set alight in what looks like a vigilante attack on a group involved in criminal activities,” he said. He said there were daily robberies and terrorising of residents in the area.

He said residents are tired and frustrated at the police’s inability to address crime in the area, warning that vigilantism could become the norm.

The spate of killings coincided with a visit to the area by Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia and other dignitaries. At a briefing at the Mfuleni police station, Cachalia said  intelligence-driven capabilities needed to combat gang violence and organised crime in Cape Town were still not fully in place.

Read more: ‘No proper plan in Cape Town to deal with gang violence,’ says Firoz Cachalia

Two days after the vigilante attack, on Friday, 12 September, members of the City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) came under attack by angry residents in gang-ravaged Valhalla Park. The officers were pursuing an armed gunman.

The driver lost control and hit a wall, injuring three people. While attending to those injured, residents attacked the officers and pelted the vehicles with bricks. The officers were injured and robbed of their electronic devices.

Trust in police at all-time low

A recent survey by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) shows that public trust in the South African Police Service (SAPS) has plummeted to its lowest point in nearly three decades.

According to the survey, “trust levels have remained relatively low over the course of this period. Not once during this 27-year interval did more than half the adult public say that they trusted the police. This suggests that the issue of police legitimacy is by no means a new one.” 

From 1998–2010, the average level of trust in the police was relatively static. It ranged between 39% and 42% in all but a few years.

In 2021 public trust in the police dipped to a low of 27%, which appears to be linked to the July 2021 social unrest. 

This was followed by a further five percentage point decline to 22% in 2022, with the 2023 and 2024/25 confidence levels almost unchanged, which may reflect increasing rates for certain crimes. 

The 2022, 2023 and 2024/25 figures are the lowest recorded in 27 years.

Need for immediacy

Speaking to Daily Maverick on Monday, 15 September, Dr Simon Howell, senior research fellow at the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Criminology, said that as far as he understood, the murders in Kraaifontein are related to organised crime, gangs and drugs.

“People feel that the criminal justice system doesn’t give the response they need. People get arrested and released all the time. There are also concerns about the criminal justice system not doing anything,” he said.

The problem is that vigilantism brings the community into conflict with the police because what they are doing is illegal – and ultimately murder, Howell said. Often communities feel that they are doing “the right thing” and what’s needed.

“That creates a lot of tension and conflict between police and communities,” he said.

Howell said that with the limited information he had regarding the attack on the LEAP officers in Valhalla Park, “these things not only occur as a result of breakdown of trust, but also as a result of the antagonistic relationship that many communities have with police, and this is not effective for policing or safety, and also not effective for the criminal justice system being an effective response to crime”.

Residents divided over vigilantism

JP Smith, City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, said he did not believe there was broad community sentiment in favour of vigilantism.

He said that as soon as the vigilante incident happened, residents started texting and sent voice notes to him saying how disgusting they thought the vigilante incident was. 

“These are the same people who will be screaming tomorrow ‘where is law enforcement and my child has been shot’,” one resident’s message to him read 

Smith said that within hours of the attack on the LEAP officers, they had received a fair number of tip-offs, and there was video footage available to them.

“Beware if you attack a law enforcement officer with dashcam and bodycams which record that stuff,” he said.

“There is a criminal element that saw an opportunity to make some rands by selling the electronic devices which they stole off the staff,” Smith said.

Regarding the accident in which the officers’ car crashed and injured three civilians, he said the officers were “chasing a gangster waving a gun and yes, they lost control, and for that we are very sorry. It is a very sad incident, but it was not intentional.”

He said the City had been in touch with the families and will assist them financially, adding there is a mechanism in place to claim against the City.

Law Enforcement spokesperson Wayne Dyason said a total of 23 people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

“A combined tracing operation was initiated by the City’s Special Investigative Unit, Safety and Security Information Management, along with SAPS and LEAP, resulting in a number of arrests.

“Officers visited 17 different addresses. They also recovered some items that were stolen from the Law Enforcement vehicle during the attack on officers,” he said.

The items recovered were bank cards, three Samsung tablets, reflective vests, a hand-held radio, a bodycam and a set of car keys.

In another development earlier on Monday, 15 September, officers conducting operations in the area received information about an abandoned cellphone. They confirmed that the phone belonged to one of the officers who were attacked.

Taking law into hands not an answer 

Meanwhile, Western Cape MEC of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Anroux Marais, said acts of vigilante lawlessness have no place in society and only serve to undermine the rule of law and the pursuit of justice.

“While communities are understandably frustrated with crime, taking the law into one’s own hands is never the answer.

“We urge residents to refrain from any form of mob justice and to instead work hand-in-hand with the South African Police Service  to ensure that those involved in criminal activities are arrested and face the full might of the law through proper legal processes,” Marais said.

She welcomed the arrest of a 49-year-old suspect in connection with the three murders that shook the community of Kraaifontein.

She said the arrest underscores the urgent need for even closer cooperation between communities and law enforcement in the ongoing fight against violent crime. 

Seven days of hell

Six people were killed over 24 hours on Monday, 8 September, and Tuesday, 9 September.

On Wednesday, 10 September, the three men accused of criminal activity were killed vigilante style and set alight by community members.

On Saturday, 13 September, a man was stabbed in the chest and later died in hospital.

On Sunday, 14 September, a 35-year-old man was shot and killed at Mhongqo informal settlement around 1am. An hour later another another man was killed and his female friend raped just metres from the first scene.

Shortly after that, at around 3.14am, two men aged 25 and 30 were shot and killed.

SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa says a 26-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with the double murder. The suspect is expected to appear in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 16 September 

“Investigation into the other shooting incidents that left three men dead, one injured and a woman raped is continuing.

“As the investigations gain momentum, it is envisaged that all the cases registered will be solved in due course,” Potelwa said. DM