Cape Town — A spate of up to seven murders over the past weekend has driven tension in the Gauteng township of Diepsloot, over the past several days, Times Live reports. Residents threatened to shut down the area and called for greater police presence and action. One case in particular saw the death of a 20-year-old man during a robbery which further aggravated the community, according to Kutlwano Moalosi, Diepsloot's community policing forum secretary.
Frustrated residents took to the streets to demonstrate, demanding a meeting with Police Minister Bheki Cele. The resulting protests against the area's high crime rate entered their third day before an eventual appearance by Cele. The minister outlined forthcoming action by the police which included the deployment of a dedicated team of detectives to the area within 24 hours to solve the outstanding cases. Reportedly several foreign nationals were arrested following the protests, according to eNCA.
Escalation of demonstrations to mob action
After several hours on Wednesday, the protests escalated to mob action with community members roving the township demanding to see residents' passports or identity documents to determine their nationality. "Community members were doing door-to-door [checks] because of the frustration that happened over the weekend. Then when they got to a yard, a guy jumped out of his shack and ran. The community got to him and burnt him," said Moalosi.
According to SABC TV, the individual Moalosi was referring to, was identified as Zimbabwean national Elvis Nyathi. His wife Nomsa Tshuma, told reporters that "many people" entered the yard of the family's home demanding to see their passports. "They said 'why are we hiding, it means we have a gun'. That's why they took him. I told them there was no gun and told them to search," Tshuma said. Nyathi was allegedly stoned and burnt to death.
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According to EWN, the Diepsloot community alleges that their protest was hijacked by a criminal element responsible for Nyathi's death. We don't condone this act. As we've been saying from the start, we want to do this thing in a peaceful way but criminals are taking advantage of the situation and we want to condemn that," said community leader Lefa Nkala. Minister Cele has not responded to the mob action at the time of publishing.
The history of Diepsloot residents' frustrations
Residents' frustrations can be traced back to between October 2021 and December 2021 when out of 11 confirmed killings only four resulted in arrests, according to IOL. Further, this latest incident of anti-migrant sentiment in Diepsloot, which has grown following the implementation of Operation Dudula - an anti-migrant movement demanding that businesses prioritise the employment of South Africans over foreign nationals - which comes less than a year after dozens of armed residents on the 45th anniversary of the June 16, Soweto uprising in 1976, participated in a "clean-up" march targeting migrant-owned shops. President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously condemned Operation Dudula's action, describing the movement as a "vigilante type" organisation utilising illegal actions that risk bloodshed.
