Riots latest: Cele urges communities to refrain from vigilantism

Police Minister, Bheki Cele has urged communities to refrain from taking matters into their own hands in the name of safeguarding the communities against the ongoing riots and looting in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

Cele was speaking in Alex, Gauteng after the army was deployed there to help quell the violence and looting.

CELE CONDEMNS VIGILANTISM IN ONGOING RIOTS

Black people who reside in suburbs in and around Durban have accused and alleged that other races are targeting and harassing them despite being residents of the same area.

“Well it is mob justice, I do not have that word, I have vigilantism when people take law into their own hands. What we are encouraging and it is still happening in KwaZulu-Natal, is that the communities, they work around the law enforcement agencies.”

“If you work with the soldiers, you work with the police, there’s your community police forum (CPF), your community in blue, those that work with the police station. We are fine with that. But the problem starts when they go for parallel structures; they go themselves and shoot the people and all that.”

Police Minister

Citizens in KZN have decided to take a stand against the uncontrollable rioting that has engulfed parts of South Africa. A series of videos posted online earlier today show various communities arming themselves up, protecting stores and businesses from the swathes of looters.

Several community groups have gathered at strategic points, in towns such as Port Shepstone, Woodlands, and Verulam, to mount a defence against looters but somehow even innocent citizens are now being harrased and killed for the colour of their skin.

🔴 Eshowe Residents Shoots Unarmed Black Family🔴

BREAKING – Tensions are growing as other race groups take law into their own hands, shooting at an unarmed and innocent black people which was travelling with its 10 year-old child. pic.twitter.com/l8e1ZL2f1y

— The Insight Factor (@insightfactor) July 13, 2021

Highway Radio on air personality Vusi Buthelezi said he was attacked too. “My car was smashed with baseball bats and almost burnt, what helped is that they had already burnt the one in front of me, so I managed to get away.”

Another resident who asked to remain anonymous said: “My brother was attacked in Phoenix yesterday. They broke all the windows in his car and they beat him using the weapons they had. He has bruises all over his body. They searched his car thinking that he had looted too and they found nothing. He was then escorted home by police,” she said.