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“He was severely beaten in revenge.
Illuminating paraffin was thrown over his body and he was set alight. Young boys did this. That is what you
can call street justice: harsh, very harsh.”
-David Mkhize, 55
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Shaun Bwoi, 14, died on Saturday, April 9, 2005, after being
beaten with crowbars by local residents in Zwelitsha, South
Africa. That's the only thing his mother Dafné (left) can say for
certain about his death. “He'd been with his friends to a local
shopping center. On their way back, they met a group of girls. The
local people suspected that they were trying to rob the young girls.
I don't know if this was true or whether it was nonsense.” But what's
true is that people believed it, and that Shaun became another
statistic of the street justice common in South Africa's neglected
townships, where low state presence and high crime have left
a vacuum easily filled with frustration, revenge and paraffin.
At least once a week, suspected criminals are beaten, shot or
burned by residents who don't want to give them their day in court.
The unofficial “kangaroo courts” even have their own officials:
Taxi drivers in several townships formed vigilante associations.
In 1999, the SABC 3 TV channel broadcast footage of several
alleged rapists being badly beaten at a taxi rank in Guguletu,
outside Cape Town. “We would patrol
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the streets in our taxis,” says one driver from Khayelitsha, who wanted to remain nameless
(many drivers are now being prosecuted for vigilantism, and
wouldn't talk). “About eight vans full of people, to ensure no
one was operating. Criminals were really afraid of us.” So was
everyone else, probably, if the violence broadcast by SABC 3 was
any example. “Street justice can never be right,” says DafnČ.
“The law has to take its course.” And while it does, and also
thanks to SABC 3's findings and broadcasts–three men are in jail
for Shaun's murder–Dafné has to live alongside their relatives.
“I don't like living here. I feel that I can't talk about what has
happened. It can't be mentioned again.”
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“Freedom of speech means for example
that you can criticize Roman Catholicism, but don't get personal and say the pope is bald and too fat.”
-Peter Hansen, 55
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Peter Hansen (left) works as a polystyrene sculptor in
Cape Town. In 1999, his larynx was removed, along with his voice.
“I had a history of shouting, in terms of releasing my anger and
frustration. I could blow a tree over. You can't talk at all after the
operation, your vocal cords are gone. All my mouth is for now is
eating and drinking. I have no breath; my nose doesn't run; I can't
whistle. The technology that allows me to talk was developed in the
USA about 20 years ago. They insert a valve between the pipes that
go to my lungs and stomach. Before this technology, all you could
do after a laryngectomy was speak on a burp. Now I'm talkative.
When I went to speech therapy I wouldn't pause for breath. The
therapist would say, 'Take a breath! You're going blue.' I can't live
without talking.”
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