Prisoners escaping from police custody.
Young township gangsters wantonly robbing and raping.
Gun-wielding murderers brutally shooting hard-working, young courier guards dead. Animal welfare workers robbed and beaten with hammers.
All of this in broad daylight. And all of it only the high-profile crimes of the last few days. It’s enough to make a person paranoid about your personal safety.
Last week I wrote about how the extent of the gang violence on the Cape Flats appears to be taking on a worrisome new level of brutality.
I was especially concerned by the body that was found on the street in Beacon Valley, Mitchells Plain, after the young man’s head had been removed and placed in a gift bag, in what was clearly a sickening message.
My concern was how this could be the beginnings of brutal tit-for-tat acts of violence to one-up each other’s inhumane cruelty.
But there are also signs of determination from ordinary people who are reaching the end of their tether.
The young township gangsters I mentioned earlier, were caught and beaten up by the community, before being handed over to the police.
Then there was last week’s incident on Mew Way in Khayelitsha, where a motorist ran over an armed man who was attempting a hold up.
In the dash-cam video footage, the criminal can be seen quickly moving from the pavement to in front of the car.
Within seconds of pointing a gun, the driver swerves into the man and drives off, after you could hear him knocking into the armed man’s body.
Online comments were naturally in support of the motorist’s actions and I think most people would generally agree that he didn’t really have a choice.
There is the very real possibility that that kid would have shot the driver while or after robbing or hijacking him.
As I said, this was in the broad daylight hours and there were other cars and people in the immediate vicinity.
To me this means people are silently complicit by not reporting their knowledge of the criminal.
And as we saw with the fed-up lady from Durban, who chased after her robber and mowed him down with her car – people are sick and tired of being victimised.
We don’t feel heard by the government or protected by the SAPS, so some are standing up and fighting back – for better or for worse.
Sadly, we are putting our family’s innocent lives at risk and in some cases, the criminals are losing their lives to vigilante action.
This doesn’t have to be the case if we had faith that justice would be served.