www.thesouthafrican.com
20 - 27 May 2014
Issue 566
41433
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REAL STORY BEHIND lynch MOB MURDER VIDEO EMERGES
| An online video showing a brutal mob murder went viral over the past week, featuring some noteworthy discrepancies and even fallacies in much of its reporting. But a fast-tracked police investigation revealed within days that the crime had nothing to do with initial reports claiming that ANC sympathisers were lynching a COPE voter on election day by sertan sanderson A viral video depicting a fatal mob attack in South Africa made global headlines last week, following initial claims that it portrayed a number of ANC supporters violently ganging up on a Congress of the People (COPE) voter on election day. The graphic video appears to show an aggressive lynch mob erupting into a full-on public execution of what was reported as a helpless woman, but later on would be verified as man. This was the first of many discrepancies to surface, making this a widely misreported and misunderstood story about the nature of crime in Mzansi. Several of the attackers in the video were wearing ANC-branded T-shirts; the kind of shirts typically circulated for free across South Africa ahead of elections, especially in impoverished township areas. This was apparently reason enough for initial reports to brand the crime a supposed “ANC killing” while the true motivation behind the murder remained unknown for several days. In the notorious clip, several people were documented violently attacking a helpless individual with brutal kicks and an axe, causing evident blunt-force trauma, leading ultimately to death. Adriana Stuijt, a former journalist and controversial “Censor Bugbear” activist, a movement which supports claims of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa, was accredited with posting the brutal footage online. She said that a “credible source” had forwarded the video to her and
| AND GOD SAID: REALLY? Zimbabwe-born UK artist Gordon Glyn-Jones is holding a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings at Hoxton Arches Gallery on 28th and 29th May 2014. Read our interview with him on page 7
commented on the video: “I believe that this video was meant as a message to black voters on voting day. These videos taken at this scene were circulated all across South Africa on voting day. And the people who took that video formed part of the propaganda campaign to tell the voters of South Africa to ‘vote ANC’ or else.” However, ANC spokeman Jackson Mthembu said the attack was “just terrible” while emphasising that the party had nothing to do with the attack at all. As both the ANC and COPE distanced themselves from the footage, and the South African Police Service (SAPS) launched an investigation into the matter, a different picture soon emerged within days about the real motivation behind the killing.
SAPS spokesman LieutenantGeneral Solomon Makgale had shared his doubts on the authenticity of the video from the beginning, as questions arose about whether the attack was indeed linked to the elections or to any other political movement: “It does not seem to have happened recently. If it did happen, it was not over the past couple of weeks because, given the huge deployment we had countrywide, it would have come to our attention.” As the investigation progressed, many of the actual details were quickly revealed, leading to three arrests. Locals Joel Lubisi, 51, Duncan Mbokodo-Sambo, 33, and Calvin Sibiya-Suthu, 27, were held in custody in connection with the crime, and are expected to be indicted on various murder charges
this week. It was also established that the video dated back to 17 February 2014, although threories had originally been raised whether it might not date back as far as 2009. The police investigation also found that the crime happened in the village of Tonga in eastern Mpumalanga, near the border with Swaziland and Mozambique. It had previously only been apparent that the violent mob in the video had descended on the defenceless person somewhere within a Zulu-speaking region, as partakers had been heard saying “uZabanjwa” (translation: “you will get arrested for this”) but the place could not be narrowed down by any markers in the video. As for the motivation behind the crime, SAPS spokesman Makgale explained that it emerged as another case of a community taking the law
into the its own hands (mob justice), after a local family had been killed and their daughter hijacked and raped by a gang of criminals. “While the police were busy conducting their investigations, the community organised themselves and conducted a manhunt. The community apprehended one murder and rape suspect and beat him to death. It is alleged that the second suspect was also caught later by the community and killed,” Makgale said. Although the ANC has been cleared of any direct involvement with this murder, it is significant that a culture of violence perpetuated by an underfunded police force plagued with corruption can compel such communities to resort to vigilantestyle justice over trusting those who have the mandate to keep the peace.