“At first, I thought he was just being assaulted because [one of the men] was on top of him and I told him to stop beating him up but he continued and even asked why I was involving myself. That is when I saw his four gold teeth. I went to the house to look for a whistle and I did not find it,” said the resident.
The woman said the men fled the scene but came back an hour later and one of Khumalo’s friends pointed them out.
“The community went after them and caught them next to a local tavern, dragged them to the deceased’s place where they were assaulted. The man with gold teeth had some of his teeth removed as he was being asked why he killed him [Khumalo].
“The community then burnt them there [outside Khumalo’s home]. It is because of the police’s lack of response that we decided to take matters into our hands. If only they arrived on time, the three would not have been killed.”
Masondo said the community should give them the time [they called police] and the number they used so that “we can conduct an internal investigation”.
“We also encourage the community to call 10111 emergency number because that’s where they can get a reference number for each call.”
Another resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said Khumalo called out to her husband when he was being chased.
“He [her husband] locked me inside the house but then I called the ambulance, and I was told they would come back to us because the ambulance was out.
“I called the police and the phone went unanswered. I called them twice with no answer, that is when we decided to take him to hospital and we were told he had died,” she said.
Vangile Kujane, who used to be a patroller in the area, said the community had experienced robberies, cable theft and burglaries.
She said in June and July, the community started patrolling the area from midnight until 4am but that stopped in August after complaints about extortion.
“They [some of the patrollers] would demand cases of alcohol and we decided to stop because they were using this group for nefarious reasons, but we kept the WhatsApp group to inform one another of any crime issues in the community,” said Kujane.
“Crime was never an issue here. It would be people from other areas who would come here and do their criminal activities.
“Sometimes when we call the police, they do not answer. They [officers] only arrived here when the three men were being set alight. What the community did will teach other people that a person can’t be killed like that in this community,” she said.
Motaung described Khumalo as a quiet person, saying that he ran a shoe washing business in the area.
Khumalo’s family declined to speak to Sowetan.
SowetanLIVE
Jeanette Chabalala
www.sowetanlive.co.za
