Three rape suspects necklaced in South Africa

Three men were necklaced in Jeffreys Bay in the Cape Province on Sunday night by a group of people who accused them of raping a young girl, Eastern Cape police said yesterday.

The three men were at a house in Tjokville when a group of people burst in and accused them of raping the girl last Friday, police spokesperson Captain Gavin Baker told Sapa. They stabbed the men and beat them up in “a hell of fight”, Baker said, then put them together on the ground and put a tyre over them.They poured petrol over them and set them alight.None of the men survived the attack.Baker said that police investigating the triple murder could not find the rape report matching the allegations the attackers made at any of the area’s police stations.Enquiries in the community had not yet found the girl at the centre of the charge.”Nobody can tell us anything,” he said.However, one person had been arrested in connection with the necklacing and the investigation was at a sensitive stage, Baker said.”Everybody is a bit shocked and tense.We thought this kind of thing was over,” Baker added.”Necklacing” was a feared method of murder during the apartheid years and was a common method of killing people believed to be police informers.- Nampa-SapaThey stabbed the men and beat them up in “a hell of fight”, Baker said, then put them together on the ground and put a tyre over them.They poured petrol over them and set them alight.None of the men survived the attack.Baker said that police investigating the triple murder could not find the rape report matching the allegations the attackers made at any of the area’s police stations.Enquiries in the community had not yet found the girl at the centre of the charge.”Nobody can tell us anything,” he said.However, one person had been arrested in connection with the necklacing and the investigation was at a sensitive stage, Baker said.”Everybody is a bit shocked and tense.We thought this kind of thing was over,” Baker added.”Necklacing” was a feared method of murder during the apartheid years and was a common method of killing people believed to be police informers.- Nampa-Sapa