The Station Commander of the Ivory Park SAPS, Brigadier David Mbongeni Ngcobo, has expressed shock at the brutal killing of a man by a mob in the Tswelopele area of ivory Park.
The victim, whose identity is not known as yet, was severely beaten, placed on a mattress, and burnt to almost beyond recognition. It is not yet known what he was killed for, and the blanket of silence by the community who were found at the scene of murder is not helping the situation at all.
Ivory Park policers officers on patrol where called to a scene on Thursday night. Upon their arrival they found a group of people who dispersed from the burning man after they saw them coming. The man was removed from the burning mattress, but by that time he showed no signs of life and was declared dead by the paramedics at the scene. The post mortem will definitively reveal if the man died of the assault wounds or burn injuries.
“What happened to the man is cruel to the core, and we call all law abiding residents of the area to let us know who killed the man and for what reason,” said Brigadier Ngcobo.
Brigadier Ngcobo is appealing to the community to refrain from taking the law into their own hands, and to work with the police through the already existing police-community structure. He said failure by the community to work within the prescribed structures and within the law will create a law of the jungle for the affected community, for which the consequences will be dire.