A suspected criminal has fallen victim to mob justice in Alexandra, as residents rose up in retaliation for the patroller and civilians who were murdered on Friday night.
Bothwell Ndlovu was shot from the back, stoned, necklaced, and doused with petrol on Monday afternoon. He was killed by a mob of residents on the banks of the Jukskei River.
Just hours later, another suspected criminal was captured, beaten, doused and set alight in a separate incident. The unnamed victim remains in critical condition in hospital.
Ndlovu was accused of committing robberies in Alexandra's Stjwetla informal settlement. Gatvol residents hunted him down and killed him.
"They shot at him from behind. He tried to run but he fell down here.
"The angry mob struck on the chest with a huge rock before necklacing and setting him alight," said his distressed brother, Siyabonga Ndlovu.
Ndlovu's family watched him helplessly as he took his last breath. The mob had vanished.
This is one of a string of deaths that have been happening in Alexandra Township.
When Scrolla.Africa reporters arrived at the crime scene, the police were already there and no one from the mob was in sight.
The lifeless Ndlovu was still burning from his head with tyres still flaming. Minutes later, the pathologists arrived and certified him as dead.
His family members broke down as they watched him burning.
Ndlovu's brother, Siyabonga Ndlovu, said he was at work when he received a call from his family members that his brother had been killed.
Siyabonga said his brother lived alone in Alexandra's extension 8, where three men, including a patroller, were killed on Friday night.
Ndlovu, a 31-year-old, came to South Africa in 2007 from Zimbabwe and worked as a construction worker.
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"It's tough to be foreign in Alex," said Ndlovu's sister following his brutal death.
"God will answer. You can't bribe Him. Tonight his killers will be celebrating while we are mourning. This is so heartbreaking," she sobbed.
This surge in violence has sparked a call to action from community leaders and law enforcement, who are now forging a united front against the rising tide of crime.
On Friday night, street patroller Thulane "Msholozi" Zuma was gunned down along with two civilians. A further four patrollers and one civilian were rushed to hospital after the attack.
A chilling spectacle was witnessed just last month in Setjwetla, where a mob's fury ignited a gruesomescene.
A defenceless man was mercilessly beaten and set ablaze as a silent throng of around 50 onlookers, including innocent schoolchildren, witnessed the haunting cruelty.
The scars of May's grim incident still mar the memories of many. In a chilling ambush, an unidentified assailant unleashed a barrage of gunfire on five street patrollers, leaving death and devastation in their wake.
