Unrest spread like wildfire throughout various areas on the Cape Flats on Tuesday 31 May.
This as reports of alleged kidnappings flooded social media, encouraging tensions and frustration in communities.
Following the release of footage of a mob justice attack in Parkwood on Tuesday, claiming a man was apprehended by the community as a result of an attempted kidnapping, tensions spilled over to the Tafelsig area where another vehicle was attacked.
In many of these social media posts from areas across the city, social media users indicated a specific vehicle, mostly Toyota Avanzas, were involved in “stalking” and “attempted kidnapping” of children and women.
With the plight of women and child kidnappings fresh in the minds of locals as a result of the Moti brothers of Limpopo and more recently Shireen Essop (still missing at the time of going to print) receiving widespread media coverage, residents are on high alert.
On Tuesday, Mitchell’s Plain police were called to the scene of the attack outside Hugenoot Primary School at 15:00.
Provincial police spokesperson WO Joseph Swartbooi said: “On arrival at the scene, police were informed about community members pelting a scholar transport vehicle with stones. The driver, however, managed to get away from the riotous crowd, which closed the exits with police vehicles still on the premises and police dispersing the crowd.”
Ruth Solomons, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police, said Law Enforcement officers also assisted police.
“Officers from both Metro Police and Law Enforcement were on scene after receiving a complaint from control that the South African Police Service required assistance,” she related.
“On their arrival members noticed a large group of people in front of the main entrance of the school throwing rocks and other objects at the vehicles in the parking area as well as the main building itself.”
Officers were not left unscathed.
“As soon as our officers were spotted the community turned on them as well throwing any objects they could find at them,” Solomons said.
“After a lengthy stand-off with the community, both the teachers and police officials were removed from the school grounds without injury, but there was damage to the school building and private vehicles, and these were reported at Mitchell’s Plain Police Station.”
The incident left four City officers injured and one vehicle damaged.
A scholar transport driver who spoke to People’s Post, and asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, said there was a general fear of operating amid these tensions.
“After we saw the videos of the man killed in Parkwood we did not feel safe coming in. He was innocent, just doing his job. It is our job to fetch children from school; we are not kidnappers.”
The driver added there was an element of “not belonging” self-evident in the Parkwood attack, and there was a fear this could recur.
“This man was killed because he did not belong. He was black and so he had to be a kidnapper. That is a real fear for many drivers now. We transport children from Philippi and Khayelitsha and we drive the same cars. Are we next?”
Rafique Floflonker, Mitchell’s Plain Police Cluster Community Policing Forum chair, called for calm in the communities following unrest.
“We have every right to be upset at the current state of affairs regarding crime and violence in our communities,” he said in a statement.
“Living under these circumstances is stressful, worrisome and traumatising to say the least. As if this were not enough, what pushes our people further to their breaking point is the constant social media onslaught of fake news, unverified crime reports and cases of missing people and missing children resulting from ‘voluntary departures’ from home due to internal household conflict.”
While these runaway cases are still a concern due to the threat of violence to their personal safety while away from home, he says these cases are distinctly different from true kidnapping or human trafficking cases and may not rise to the same danger and risk level.
The Mitchell’s Plain cluster includes the police precincts of Steenberg, Lansdowne, Mitchell’s Plain, Lentegeur, Strandfontein, Athlone, Philippi and Grassy Park, the station responsible for the Parkwood area.
“Police and community resources are constantly distracted and redirected away from true kidnapping and human trafficking cases due to the high incidence of fake news and fake claims that need to be proven or disproven,” says Floflonker.
“Equally troubling is our community acting with extreme prejudice to attack and or kill innocent people who are falsely accused of being criminals, destroying property and taking the life of someone’s mother, father son, or daughter and perhaps the breadwinner in the family is horrible and does not serve justice in any way. In fact it is an even greater crime with so many more victims as a result.”
The man killed in the Parkwood attack has been identified as Abongile Mafalala (31) an e-hailing driver from Dunoon. Grassy Park police have insisted that there was no evidence of an attempted kidnapping and that Mafalala was innocent.
As of Monday 6 June, police questioned 29 people and arrested nine suspects on charges of murder and destruction of property.
Officials are calling for common sense to prevail and for residents not to take the law into their own hands.
Mitchells Plain police are investigating cases of public violence and malicious damage to property. The suspects are yet to be arrested.
