A man attacked by an angry mob in Tantyi, Grahamstown, on Thursday 6 November, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries and his two companions taken into police custody.
A man attacked by an angry mob in Tantyi, Grahamstown, on Thursday 6 November, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries and his two companions taken into police custody.
The three men were chased into Zolani informal settlement after a Tantyi resident was stabbed in the hand, fighting off muggers.
Tantyi resident Luxolo Mnyane was robbed of his cellphone and was stabbed in his fight to recover it.
Mnyane told Grocott’s Mail he was near L Street, on his way to the shop around 5pm on Thursday, when he noticed three men walking towards him.
Unsuspecting, he made no effort to avoid them.
One of them rushed towards him and grabbed his cellphone out of his hand.
Mnyane immediately grabbed the thief and wrestled him to the ground, but his accomplices took out knives.
"One came towards me just after I had managed to regain my phone from the other guy and stabbed my hand," Mnyane recounted.
He said the stabbing had left him with a small cut on his hand.
Soon after the incident a member of the public who saw what had happened came running towards the group with a hammer in his hand.
Seeing this, the men ran away.
"The man [with the hammer]said one of the three men had just robbed an elderly woman as she got off a taxi," Mnyane said.
The man with the hammer hadn’t named the taxi mugging victim.
Mnyane said residents and passers by then joined the chase towards Zolani informal settlement. The mob caught up with the three men in Zolani.
Mnyane said he’d been told two of the men were from Extension 9 and one from Zolani. He said the group attacked the three men and recovered another cellphone.
The men allegedly confessed to taking it from a Mary Waters High School pupil.
Mnyane said the police then arrived, took the cellphone and kept it.
He said the police took a statement from him afterwards.
Mnyane said the man who had grabbed his cellphone was badly injured after being attacked by the mob. He was rushed to hospital and the other two were taken into custody.
Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Milanda Coetzer confirmed that the police had arrested two men in Zolani in connection with the incident.
On Friday 7 November, Coetzer said details were still sketchy.
"They were detained at the Joza Police Station," she said.
