Necklacing reignites in South African vigilantism
Etienne Marais
==================
Jul 27, 2011
Necklacing reignites in South African vigilantism
PORT ELIZABETH (South Africa) - IT WAS one crime too many for New
Brighton. Two men broke into an elderly woman's home, stole her
television, and then stabbed her tenant to death when he tried to
protect her.
So the next morning, neighbours tracked down the thieves, put tyres
around their necks, doused them with petrol and set them ablaze, an
execution method known as 'necklacing'.
'These boys had been causing problems in the community for a long
time.
They terrorised us,' said one resident of the township in South
Africa's industrial city of Port Elizabeth.
'People were shouting, emotions were high. Everything happened all at
once,' he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
'I just saw tyres being put around their necks, petrol was poured and
they were set alight. When they were burning people were shouting all
sort of insults and then it was done... The whole thing was so fast
like in a movie.' 'Necklacing' is one of the grisliest legacies of the
violence that rocked South Africa's townships in the 1980s, a
punishment meted out to perceived sell-outs in the fight against white-
minority rule, or sometimes to common criminals convicted by 'people's
courts'.
Since June, necklacing has re-emerged in Port Elizabeth as a new form
of vigilante justice, which is common in townships where poor policing
spawns deep frustrations. -- AFP
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_695310.html