ANGRY community patrollers were outside the Vereeniging Magistrate Court as three people appeared for assaulting house-breaking thugs.
Three community policing forum (CPF) members appeared in court for the second time on Tuesday, 30 January, and their case was postponed to Thursday, 22 February 2024, for further investigation.
The three CPF members are facing charges of assault GBH for allegedly beating up two tsotsis who were caught right-handed while stealing appliances at a house in Lakeside, near Orange Farm, south of Joburg in December 2023.
The courtroom was full of angry community members and CPF members to support the three accused members.
A source close to the case told Daily Sun that police are going to add more charges against the accused, and more suspects will be arrested as the accused are also linked to a case of a man who was killed in December while he was drunk and looking for his girlfriend.
The suspects allegedly accused him of breaking into a house, and then he was beaten up very badly and as he was rushed to hospital.
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The stolen appliances were found but were never reported to the police, and after the man died hours later, the suspects allegedly rushed to the Orange Farm Police Station to open a case against the dead man.
Daily Sun published an article on 29 December 2023 titled Pogisho killed while looking for his girlfriend, and he is the dead man that the source is referring to.
According to one of the community members, the accused members are being targeted by criminals in the township as they are crime fighters, and the crime has increased since they were charged.
“What is more painful is they are being charged because of criminals who were caught right-handed stealing, but today, criminals are walking free, and innocent people are facing criminal charges that are based on false information,” she said.
Some of the patrollers said that they are afraid to be witnesses because sometimes a witness is the one who goes to jail or is targeted by criminals.
