Necklacing is the practice of summary execution and torture carried out by forcing a rubber tire, filled with gasoline, around a victim's chest and arms, and setting it on fire. The victim may take up to 20 minutes to die, suffering severe burns in the process. A summary execution is one in which a person is accused of a crime and then immediately killed by a mob of people, with no fair trial. The victims were often brutally beaten by the mob taking turns, either striking them with their hands and feet, or resorting to using weapons like large stones or boards etc.

The practice became a common method of lethal lynching during disturbances in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. The first recorded instance took place in Uitenhage on 23 March 1985 when African National Congress (ANC) supporters killed a councilor who was accused of being a collaborator. The executions were often carried out by mobs in the name of the ANC, but the ANC later denounced the practice. One of the leaders of the ANC was Nelson Mandela. He and his wife publicly endorsed this practice as a means of bringing about change and removing opposition. The ANC were fighting to stop the racial segregation and inequality of native Africans in South Africa. From 1984-1987 there were 682 deaths recorded as being burned alive, half of which were necklacings. This form of execution has continued to happen in South Africa in the years following the ANC gaining control of the government; in 2011 there were 7 recorded cases.

One of the most brutal examples of this is the execution of a young girl named Maki Skosana, who was accused of collaborating with the government, a crime the ANC mob thought was worthy of death. Her sister Moloko told the story of how she was killed. Moloko said her sister was burned to death with a tire around her neck while attending the funeral of one of the youths. “Her body had been scorched by fire and some broken pieces of glass had been inserted into her vagina“, Moloko added that a big rock had been thrown on her face after she had been killed.

Necklacing evolved in the townships as a way of punishing police informers. Sometimes the executions were racially motivated by apartheid (a system of racial segregation enforced through legislation by the National Party), sometimes the people killed were thieves, or were collaborators with the government. It is often compared to a witch hunt.

They also did this in Haiti around the same time period as in Africa. As well as in India during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Drug dealers in Brazil also use this method of execution.