MOB JUSTICE - Innocent Man Bludgeoned to Death

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Warning: This video contains graphic scenes of violence.</span></strong><br /><br />Surrounded by a jeering mob, a 26-year-old Zimbabwean man was bludgeoned to death in Diepsloot, his horrifying ­final moments captured on a video that thrust South Africa's violence back into the international spotlight. This footage has never been released in South Africa, but made headlines in one of the world’s most influential newspapers.<br /><br /></span><iframe id="nyt_video_player" title="New York Times Video - Embed Player" height="373" marginheight="0" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=100000000845074&playerType=embed" frameborder="0" width="480" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Farai Kujirichita was still alive when a man in a white cap methodically destroyed his face and skull with a heavy wooden plank. He was probably dead or dying when another man grasped his belt and punched him repeatedly in the groin and a grinning teenage girl raised a large chunk of cement above her head. </span><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>His "crime"? - Being Zimbabwean!<br /></strong><br />His murder in <strong>January</strong> this year in Diepsloot - a community of 150 000 in northern Johannesburg, where ­instances of mob violence are ­commonplace and growing ever more so - was quickly forgotten. It would have remained that way but for a New York Times Magazine cover story last weekend and the grainy cellphone video of his final moments, excerpts from which were published for the first time on the paper's website.<br /><br />The article appeared just days after UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Jorge Bustamante, highlighted xenophobic attacks in South Africa and called on the government to implement more stringent hate crime legislation. The story of Kujirichita's killing made international headlines last week, including in newspapers in Zimbabwe, Taiwan and New Zealand.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#999999;">In Diepsloot, the killings continued.</span></strong><br /><br />Two weeks ago, two Zimbabweans were kicked and beaten to death after being accused of robbery. In another incident, a suspected thief ­narrowly escaped with his life when police arrived just in time to prevent a mob from killing him.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;color:#000099;"><em>See full story here:</em></span> <br /><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/magazine/watching-the-murder-of-an-innocent-man.html?_r=2&ref=magazine"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/magazine/watching-the-murder-of-an-innocent-man.html?_r=2&ref=magazine</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Horror-of-a-mob-murder-20110612"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Horror-of-a-mob-murder-20110612</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.news24.com/Galleries/Video/Videos/South%20Africa/Mob%20murder%20in%20Diepsloot/0210ab51d67e469f9b3cbae65c6d7394/Mob-murder"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.news24.com/Galleries/Video/Videos/South%20Africa/Mob%20murder%20in%20Diepsloot/0210ab51d67e469f9b3cbae65c6d7394/Mob-murder</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></em></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></p></span>

MOB JUSTICE - Innocent Man Bludgeoned to Death

Warning: This video contains graphic scenes of violence. Surrounded by a jeering mob, a 26-year-old Zimbabwean man was bludgeoned to death i...

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