A total of 14 people have been arrested for the mob justice attack on a Bolt driver which resulted in his death in Parkwood on Tuesday.
The Daily Voice can also reveal that minutes before the incident, in which Du Noon resident Abongile Mafalala, 30, was set alight along with his car, one of the suspects was seen smashing the windscreen of another car driving on Prince George Drive nearby.
Grassy Park Station commander Colonel Dawood Laing says Mafalala was robbed by two men and when they were seen, they falsely claimed that he was a kidnapper.
“The driver had just dropped off his passengers and was waiting for his next trip when he was robbed by two suspects.
“When people noticed this, they shouted that he was trying to kidnap kids,“ says Laing.
The community – which was already spooked by an alleged attempted abduction in the area last week and false reports of kidnapping on social media – quickly turned on the Bolt driver and mercilessly beat him up before setting him alight.
Videos of the mob attack went viral on social media, with one showing a man kicking Mafalala even while his body lay smouldering.
Mafalala was robbed of his cellphone, while the battery of his Toyota Avanza was also stolen before it was burnt.
Laing says all 14 suspects will appear in Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Monday on charges of murder, robbery and defeating the ends of justice.
Bolt spokesperson Takura Malaba confirmed that Mafalala was registered as a driver on their platform.
Meanwhile, Du Noon community leader Zukile Gwayi says they found out about the incident from someone who had Mafalala’s CV.
“The person who called found a number on the CV and called one of our neighbours and told him that Abongile was being attacked in Parkwood,” says Gwayi.
“He went to inform his sisters about the murder, then the family arranged to go to the scene and confirmed it was his car and that it was their brother who was killed.”
He says Abongile was a quiet man who didn’t speak much.
“They obviously didn’t give him the chance to explain why he was in the area. They just thought that he was a foreigner who was there to kidnap children.”
His emotional sister Khuselwa Mafalala, 35, tells the Daily Voice that the killers have taken away a breadwinner.
“He supported me, my children and siblings and he only started working two years ago and we had been surviving with his money,” she says.
“My baby calls him dad and he has been asking for him. We still have not told him that is never going to see him again.”