Mob justice under spotlight after man is killed ‘over Kempton Park murders’

The killing of a Mpumalanga man, allegedly at the hands of residents who accused him of having a hand in the Kempton Park killings, has brought mob justice into the spotlight.

Vusimuzi Radebe was beaten to death after his attackers allegedly linked him to the deaths of the Kempton Park women whose bodies were found in the past two months.

Radebe’s family said in a statement that he was returning from his grandmother’s home in KwaGuqa when he was stopped and questioned about where he lived and where he was coming from.

“When he said he was from Kempton Park, assumptions were made about him because of the recent violent attacks on women in the Ekurhuleni town. He was then brutally assaulted and died at the scene,” said his family.

Gugu Shabalala, mental health and psychosocial support manager at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg, said crowd behaviour allows individuals to feel less personally accountable for violence because responsibility was spread among many people.

“This is why mob violence can escalate so quickly from confrontation to fatal injury: no single person experiences themselves as the killer,” she said.

She said mob justice was often driven by a combination of institutional distrust, crowd psychology and community beliefs.

One of the most frequently cited drivers of mob justice attacks, she said, was a perception that the criminal justice system was failing communities.

“Mob justice responds to institutions people do not trust, amplified by crowd psychology and anchored in local belief systems.”

In their annual crime statistics released in March, police recorded 299 murders as a result of vigilantism nationally, including 32 in Mpumalanga.

Shabalala said slow investigations, case backlogs, and the visible release of suspects on bail or after short sentences feed a perception − not always accurate, but deeply felt − that the formal criminal justice system cannot or will not protect ordinary people.

Addressing mob justice required more than condemning communities after incidents had occurred, she said.

“Rebuilding trust requires visible, responsive and accountable policing, as well as stronger links between communities and the courts.”

In an interview with Sowetan, eMalahleni municipality’s former MMC for community safety, Sizwe Buthelezi, said he visited Radebe’s family, who told him that their son had mental health problems.

“The family told me when I visited them that Vusi had a mental condition that he lived with but was independent and followed a specific routine daily,” Buthelezi said.

“In fact, he was attacked en route home from his grandmother’s house, which formed part of his daily routine − he spends some time at his home, then the grandparents’ home, which is also within walking distance.”

Buthelezi said he didn’t have details on why Radebe was attacked. “I also saw the video of Vusi on social media two days after the incident.”

The 15-second video circulating on social media shows a man, believed to be Radebe, being assaulted.

A female voice can be heard alleging that the man had been following young girls.

One of the residents Sowetan spoke to said they heard a day after the attack that Radebe was mentally disturbed.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Col Mavela Masondo confirmed that the police were investigating a case of murder and had launched a manhunt for suspects.

“The motive for the attack cannot be confirmed at this stage and forms part of the ongoing investigation,” Masondo said.

eMalahleni council speaker Nombuso Shabangu expressed condolences to Radebe’s family and said that while the frustration, fear and anger surrounding gender-based violence and femicide are deeply understood, violence cannot be answered with more violence.

At the time of his death, Radebe had recently relocated to Mpumalanga after his parents, who are originally from the province, retired from their jobs in Gauteng. They had lived in Kempton Park since the early 1990s.

His family is appealing to anyone who witnessed the attack or has information about what happened to come forward.