- Zandspruit residents called on police minister Bheki Cele to address their concerns about policing in the area.
- On Wednesday, nine young men were attacked, allegedly by a local mob.
- A task team was set up to assess the station's challenges.
Police minister Bheki Cele has called for an urgent probe into allegations that the police responded too late to the Zandspruit vigilante attack, as the death toll climbed to eight.
Cele was responding to residents' claims that the local police station was not responding to their distress calls.
Cele made the call at a meeting with residents of Zandspruit informal settlement in Johannesburg, following the gruesome killing of eight young men.
Angry community members reported to Cele and the provincial police team at the gathering, that the Honeydew police station, which also serves the Zandspruit area, provided poor service to the community.
Six suspects had since been arrested for the incident.
On Wednesday, nine young men were captured by angry community members and taken to a nearby soccer field where they were allegedly assaulted and torched.
One remains in a critical condition.
Residents told Cele that the killings could have been avoided if police responded on time.
In a statement on Saturday, the police ministry announced that Cele, together with Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko, met with the provincial police management to get a full briefing about the killings and what progress police had made in the case.
Cele also met with community leadership structures, to find out what could have led to the vigilante action.
Urgent probe
Representatives of the local CPF and other recognised community safety structures, expressed residents' policing and safety concerns.
The residents claimed that local police were not only corrupt, but, at times, ignored their policing needs.
In his address to the community gathered at the local sports ground where the murders took place, Cele told residents that he was convinced the community of Zandspruit deserved improved service delivery.
Police ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Temba said a police task team had been put together to look at other identified problems within the station as well as to relook all cold cases that had been dragging on with little to no conclusion.
Temba said Cele committed to return to the area within a month to provide feedback to residents on what had been done to improve the station's performance and service delivery.
He ordered an urgent probe into why the police response time was slow on the morning of the attacks and called for heads to roll, said Temba.