Mob Justice in Chatsworth: Another Black Life Lost to Vigilante Violence

By Zanele Mokoena

The Chatsworth community is reeling after a suspected mob justice killing has claimed two lives, exposing the deep failures of a criminal justice system that continues to abandon Black and Coloured communities in South Africa. On Wednesday, police recovered the body of a second victim, a 41-year-old man from Chatsworth, from a river near Philadelphia, his hands tied behind his back. This follows the brutal murder of Cedick Jonathan van Schalkwyk, a 38-year-old father and scrap metal collector, who was dragged from his home and beaten to death by a group of about 10 men.

Van Schalkwyk was attacked late at night outside his home in Chatsworth. The group arrived in a bakkie, its <