Police stopped protesters from torching a house in vigilante violence opposite this shop in Parow. Photo: Tariro Washinyira
21 February 2020
About 300 Elsies River residents protested in the streets of Parow and burnt two houses and a club suspected of involvement with drug dealing on Friday afternoon. This followed the appearance in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court this morning of the accused in the Tazne Van Wyk murder and kidnapping trial.
Police ordered the few shops that remained open along Station Road to close.
After the torching, protesters gathered outside a place popularly known as the “blue house” in Victoria Street facing a park. The protesters said the blue house is where eight-year-old Tazne Van Wyk was allegedly kept for three days by her kidnappers before she was murdered. Her body was found on Wednesday night in a storm water drain near the N1.
Police spokesperson Captain Frederick Van Wyk said: “Two houses were set alight and a vehicle overturned. SAPS urges members of the public to refrain from taking the law into their own hands. Anyone who is found to have participated in such an unlawful act will be arrested and charged.”
Community leader Connie Blackenberg said the Elsies River community want the blue house destroyed. “People who stay here sell drugs. They kidnap and rape our children inside this house. All the people staying in this blue house don’t belong in the community. We want people staying here to be removed. They must not stay here any more because they will continue to murder and hurt our children and women. We are angry the police are guarding them. These people don’t need protection. They are a danger to society.”
An Elsies River resident who refused to be named said: “I live in the same street with Tazne’s family. They must give the guy who killed the little girl to the community. We want justice. We don’t want court’s justice. As a community we have our own way of getting justice.”
CORRECTION: The original version of this article, because of a typo, had the wrong age for Tazne van Wyk. Our apologies.