An angry mob lynched two teenage boys in South Africa's remote Eastern Cape province for allegedly robbing two elderly women of 500 rand, a little over 50 euros, reports said Thursday, according to dpa. South Africa's SAPA news agency quoted police as saying that a group of residents in Xhongora village near the town of Mthatha beat the boys with sticks and a whip and then set them alight. Eastern Cape, the home province of anti-apartheid icon and former president Nelson Mandela, who has a house near Mthatha, is one of South Africa's poorest provinces. The police said they were called to the scene an hour after the attack, by which time the boys, who were accused of robbing 500 rand (51 euros), were dead. Eighteen people, including a 15-year-old boy, were arrested in connection with the attack Thursday morning, police said. Vigilantism is rampant in South Africa, where poor people bear the brunt of alarmingly high rates of robberies, rapes, murders and other crimes. With conviction rates for many crimes languishing around the 10-per-cent mark, many poor people have lost confidence in the criminal justice system and resort to mob justice in dealing with suspects. It is not uncommon in these cases for suspects to be torched. dpa cb mt
