Almost 10% of murders can be linked to vigilante attacks that have surged in Cape Town townships. A Cape Argus report notes that last week, four men were killed when members of the Marikana informal settlement in Philippi East took the law into their own hands. The community said they were sick of being targeted by criminals and the police’s response was unsatisfactory.

Manager of the Crime and Justice Hub at the Institute for Security Studies, Lizzette Lancaster, said a docket analysis of police statistics showed that vigilantism contributed to 10% of all murders. ‘Over 208 have been reported in the media and obviously there are far more. It is clearly a big problem in SA and one that could potentially grow because communities are increasingly becoming frustrated by crime and police’s inability to deal with it,’ she said. ‘I think if the recommendations from the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry are properly adopted in the Western Cape and implemented we could see a difference,’ she added.

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