The Randburg Magistrate Court will today hand down its judgement on the bail application filed by seven South Africans accused of killing Zimbabwean, Elvis Nyathi, in Johannesburg’s Diepsloot township.
Nyathi was stoned and burnt to death in Diepsloot last month when a vigilante group went door to door looking for undocumented foreign nationals and suspected criminals.
Court records indicate that the seven have spent three weeks behind bars. The investigating officer had sought to bring Elvis's wife, Nomusa Tshuma, to South Africa for an identification parade, but she refused, noting that she may be killed like her husband.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that the accused pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges laid against them.
According to the Associated Press, Amnesty International says migrants in South Africa are living in fear of attacks and even death, after a Zimbabwean man was burned to death amid renewed violence against foreigners in some poor neighborhoods of Johannesburg. The rights group said in a report recently that those most targeted are Zimbabweans, who make up the largest number of migrants in Africa’s most developed economy. Amnesty International accused South African authorities of “inaction” and “a lack of political will” to stem the wave of anti-migrant violence witnessed in recent weeks. The report said that violence is driven by vigilante groups who blame foreigners from poorer African countries for South Africa’s rampant unemployment.