Durban – A alleged burglar was tied to a tree and assaulted by the community after he was caught breaking into a home north of Durban.
Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) spokesperson Prem Balram said the incident happened in Amoutana in the early hours of Sunday.
Balram said Rusa officers were called out at 2.21am.
“On arrival, a man was found tied to a tree and assaulted by the community. He was accused of breaking into a home while the owners were in church,” Balram said.
He said the suspect was handed over to the SAPS.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Nqobile Gwala said: “We have checked with Inanda SAPS, no such incident was reported.”
Commenting on the Facebook post by Rusa, one woman said: “Not a good picture, but this is how people are feeling about being robbed, looted, raped, hijacking and murdered. It's a good feeling to know that the community is getting together to protect one another. I hope and pray that we see less of this in the time to come. We need to take a stand as police are few.”
Another person said the community was proactive and deserved recognition for dealing with “skelms”. It was not fair that people’s houses were burgled while they were at church.
One man praised the excellent work by the community but said it was unfortunate that it had come to this.
“That is due to the fact that we have a useless justice system,” he said.
Another man said the community should have given him a litre of castor oil to drink first and rubbed a whole tub of red MCO chest rub on his body and then handed him over to the cops.
A third man said: “But I'm not happy about those members of the community who are quick to call the law agencies while we're busy talking to the criminals.”
Daily News