S. Africa Condemns 12 to Hang in ‘Necklacings’

Twelve black men Tuesday were sentenced to hang in the nominally independent South African homeland of Ciskei for being part of a mob that burned five youths to death.

A judge in the Ciskei capital of Bisho had convicted the 12 of murder with no extenuating circumstances for the 1987 “necklace” killings of the youths in a township near the Cape province port of East London.

In necklacing, the victim’s hands are tied and a gasoline-soaked tire is placed around the neck and set on fire.

Four other men were each sentenced to 20 years after being found guilty of murder with extenuating circumstances.

The 16 were convicted Monday under the doctrine of “common purpose,” meaning that they were not found guilty of carrying out the actual killings but of sharing the aims of those who did.

During the trial, the court was told that a group of residents from Mdantsane township near East London abducted five youths in February, 1987, and killed them after accusing them of slaying another youth.

The judge said that although only a few of the defendants were involved in the actual killing, there was enough evidence to convict all of them of murder.

The case bears similarities to the trial of the so-called Sharpeville Six--five men and a woman who were sentenced to death in 1986 for being part of a mob that killed a black town official. President Pieter W. Botha commuted their sentences to long prison terms after an international outcry.

Two weeks ago, another judge using the common-purpose doctrine in the town of Upington sentenced 14 people to death for being part of a mob of 120 that killed a black police officer. They were the largest group to be sentenced to death in modern South African legal history.