[imagesource: Twitter / @Abramjee]

Panicked voicenotes.

A community fearing that their children were being snatched by a kidnapper operating in the area, and an innocent man publicly beaten and burnt in a mob justice attack in Parkwood, Cape Town.

All in all, another painful, tragic example of why people need to take greater responsibility for the unverified information they share on social media and forward via WhatsApp.

On Tuesday, residents of Parkwood believed they apprehended a man who was kidnapping children with the help of two accomplices.

Videos and images soon did the rounds of the man being beaten to a pulp and set alight as the community watched on. We won’t share those, but IOL has a blurred video obscuring the man’s identity here.

On social media, some rejoiced that a kidnapper had been taken off the streets. A day later, reports IOL, the truth came to light, with police saying the man beaten and then burnt was innocent:

Grassy Park police station commander Colonel Dawood Laing said investigations revealed no proof of an attempted kidnapping and the community was on edge following unconfirmed reports on social media of kidnappings…

He said detectives questioned the security guard and a nurse at the clinic where the snatching supposedly took place. However, no evidence was found of any kind of kidnapping.

“This is mass hysteria caused by social media and the spreading of fake news.”

He said police are looking at the footage and identifying those responsible, adding that “arrests are imminent”.

The victim, originally referred to as a 31-year-old from Dunoon, has since been identified as Abongile Mafalala in a follow-up IOL story:

Laing said unconfirmed information indicates that two gangsters robbed the Uber driver, and when he resisted they cried wolf and called out that Mafalala wanted to take two children.

“The community was emotional about fake information circulating on social media, and they all acted and partook in this brutal murder.

“Two suspects were also seen searching through the pockets of the victim after he was severely beaten and left for dead before him being set on fire.”

Western Cape Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen has also been outspoken about the dangers of vigilantism and mob justice.

Communities across the country can feel rightly aggrieved that they live in ‘war zones’ with unchecked criminality, but Allen says, “When people take the law into their own hands, it turns into anarchy.”

More from his CapeTalk interview with Refilwe Moloto:

“In Tafelsig this week, we got information of a similar situation with a vehicle in the area. There were allegations of an attempted child abduction, which were not confirmed. Some community members started throwing stones but the driver managed to get away.”

Allen is urging community police forums and neighbourhood watches to play their part by combatting vigilantism. The department also has a court watching brief, to oversee the efficiency of court cases.

Whatever happens next, it’s too late for Mafalala.

One more time, for those at the back – hitting ‘Share’ or ‘Forward’ without doing any fact-checking can have life and death consequences.

[sources:iol&iol&capetalk]