ONE man was killed overnight in an apparent mob attack in a northern Johannesburg township rocked by violent anti-crime protests, South African police said today.

Protests against rising crime erupted yesterday in Diepsloot township following reports that seven people had been murdered in the area at the weekend.

Angry residents complained that police were not doing enough to stem the crime wave.

Local residents chanting slogans and waving placards marched along the streets, burned tyres and picketed outside the local police station.

At night a small group of people went around demanding to see people’s identity documents, according to police spokeswoman Brigadier Brenda Muridili.

They “went from door-to-door and then when they got to this house, this young man just ran out of the house and they chased him and unfortunately he was killed”, she told public broadcaster SABC.

The broadcaster and other local media said the dead man was from Zimbabwe.

President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the killing.

“We will not condone any criminality. Any form of criminality which results in the death of anyone is not acceptable and we will take action to deal with it,” Ramaphosa told reporters.

The killing occurred just hours after the Police Minister Bheki Cele and police chiefs visited the area.

More than two dozen illegal migrants have been arrested in the area over the past two days, police said. 

Although unrelated to this week’s protests, scores of protesters in Johannesburg have in recent months been staging demonstrations against undocumented migrants in what they have dubbed Operation Dudula, Zulu for “drive back”.

With unemployment at more than 35%, competition for jobs has spawned resentment among some jobless South Africans.

Foreign nationals have also been involved in various kinds of crime across the country. 

Attacks against foreigners left at least 62 people dead in 2008, while in 2019 similar clashes killed at least 12 people, of whom 10 were South African. – AFP, April 7, 2022.