[imagesource:flickr]

Two women have been taken in for questioning after an alleged  TV thief was beaten to death and his body dumped in a Philippi dam.

A passerby noticed the man’s body on Saturday and alerted police, who are now investigating a case of murder.

Western Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm Pojie said further investigation led police to two women aged 40 and 32 in Marcus Garvey, who are now being questioned.

A local resident who watched police and forensic teams retrieve the body from the water told News24 that the deceased ‘had been accused of terrorising residents for some time’.

“I don’t know where he lived, but people complained about him breaking into their homes,” she said.

The resident claimed she was woken by a noise early on Saturday morning and saw residents beating the alleged thief in the street.

“I went to see what was happening. When I got outside, I saw a man being assaulted by the residents.”

Later the day, the witness saw people gathering at the dam as police were retrieving the body, and upon enquiring what the commotion was, she was told by locals that the ‘thief’ had been dumped in the dam.

Another resident in the area confirmed that the alleged thief had broken into their homes as well, with one complaining that he had broken into her house and stolen a TV and a phone in January. She reported it but did not know what happened to the case.

“He was a young boy, the same age as my son, born in 2000, but he terrorised our community.”

Locals say the man was repeatedly warned to stop breaking into houses in the neighbourhood, but despite the police being called several times, he was never arrested. It seems the locals became fed up with police inaction and decided to take the law into their own hands.

Kashiefa Mohammed, the spokesperson for the community policing forum in Philippi, said residents were tired of criminals taking their hard-earned belongings. Mohammed said residents were frustrated because, even when they opened cases, the same criminals would still be roaming free.

[source:news24]