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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday doomed Acts of “magical justice” perpetrated by South Africans against illegal miners this week in response to the brutal gang-rape of eight women by suspected illegal miners last week at an abandoned mine near Krugersdorp, South Africa, eNews Channel Africa (eNCA) reported.
“Today, we also saw justice delivered to the mob,” Ramaphosa admitted during a televised broadcast. speaking at the South African Presidential Social Sector Summit in Boksburg on 5 August.
“People, because of their anger, come out to confront a number of people and there is mob justice,” Ramaphosa was quoted as saying by eNCA.
The president referred to mob violence against members of illegal mining camps in Krugerdorp that began on August 4 and continued until August 5.
Al Jazeera presented some examples of the violence on Thursday, Writing:
Thousands of angry residents in the South African town of Krugersdorp attacked a group of illegal miners with machetes, golf clubs and hammers after a gang-rape last week shocked the nation.
“The mob set fire to their camps in Krugersdorp’s Kagiso town on Thursday and blocked roads with stones and burnt tires during a protest against the presence of the miners, who they blame for high levels of crime in the area.
Some were stripped of their clothes and flogged by residents, while others were driven from their camps and beaten before handing themselves over to the authorities. Police kept their distance and fired stun grenades from a helicopter to disperse the crowds.
The attacks on the illegal miners’ camps — colloquially known as “zama zamas” — were perpetrated by local residents. Many of the locals are frustrated by the alleged inaction of the police against the entrenched, nefarious activities of the miners in the area. Most zama zama have entered South Africa illegally from Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
“Residents from various areas in Gauteng’s West Rand have gone on the rampage against the zama zamas following the brutal gang-rape of eight women at a Krugersdorp mine dump a week ago,” eNCA reported on August 5.
“Kagiso residents meanwhile say there is not enough visible policing,” the news agency reported.
Krugersdorp is a town located in the Gauteng province of South Africa, while Kagiso is a municipality of Krugersdorp.
Women protest outside the Krugersdorp, South Africa, Magistrate’s Court Monday, August 1, 2022. More than 80 men suspected of gang-raping eight women and armed robbery of a video production studio in Ming town, west of Johannesburg appeared in court on Monday. (AP Photo/Shiraaz Mohamed)
South African authorities suspect that an unknown number of zama zama gangs carried out a brutal, hours-long gang-rape of eight women in an abandoned mine near Krugersdorp on July 28. The armed gang surrounded the group of women, most of whom were models hired for the day, as they attempted to shoot a music video at the remote location before being repeatedly raped at gunpoint.
“Young people there between 19 and 37 were raped, some of them 10 men. You can imagine the trauma in that situation,” said South Africa’s police minister, Becky Selle. he said eNCA on July 30.
An anonymous gang-rape survivor is described some of the men who raped her as “young boys”, in South Africa Sunday Times on July 31.
“They were telling the younger boys to rape us and hitting them and forcing them to do it,” a woman who helped book the models for the video shoot told the newspaper.
“The young lads used to take us then, one by one, into the bush. The last time I was raped was in front of the other team,” she said.
South African police arrested more than 80 men, mostly zama zamas, in the week after the July 28 mass rape in Krugersdorp. It remains unclear how many, if any, of the suspects are responsible for the gang-rape, however, as authorities have so far only charged the suspects with illegal immigration or theft.
South African Police Minister Bheki Cele told eNCA on July 30 that “DNA testing and identification parades will soon take place to determine if any of the suspects were among the group that raped the women.”
“Certainly our labs, which are grinding now, will prioritize, work on it,” he added.
South Africa he’s got the third highest rape rate in the world after Lesotho and Botswana. The South African government has been recorded almost 11,000 cases of rape in the first three months of 2022.
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