The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) officers who were working at a site where Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) PR councillor Moshe Mphahlele was killed have since been suspended.
Mphahlele was shot and killed on August 4 when the officers allegedly tried to disperse protesting community members in Marlboro near Alexandra at the site of the container flats.
According to the EFF in Gauteng where Mphahlele was deputy regional secretary, the councillor was engaging in a peaceful service delivery programme advocating for social housing when he was killed.
ALSO READ: City and EFF mourns the death of fighter Moshe Mphahlele
The City of Johannesburg’s public safety MMC Mgcini Tshwaku provided an update regarding the ongoing investigations on his address to the press on August 8.
Tshwaku said the autopsy report shows that Mphahlele was first shot with a rubber bullet, which grazed him in his head and left him confused.
“He then ran behind a security guard’s house, climbed on the transformer at the back, jumped over the boundary wall to escape the bullets, and fell on the street still bleeding.
“He bled to death on his way to the clinic, and it was discovered that he had also been shot with live ammunition,” Tshwaku said.
Tshwaku said a 16-year-old boy was shot at close range. “The young man was shot close to his heart, but he survived even though he is in a critical condition in hospital. Others sustained rubber bullet injuries but were later discharged, including a pregnant woman.
“This indicates a lack of accountability and negligence on the side of the JMPD. It is not clear why JMPD allowed private security to take charge and use excessive force such as stun grenades and rubber bullets,” Tshwaku said.
Tshwaku confirmed the preventive suspension of JMPD officers, though the exact number remains unclear. He said the officers handed over their firearms to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) for ballistic testing.
“We need to check where the shots came from because the statements that have been put forward are that the community was firing shots at the police.
“Then the question we asked [is why] there are no casualties that have been seen on both [sides of] the private security and [the authorities],” Tshwaku said.
Tshwaku reassured residents that the city would exhaust all avenues in their pursuit of the perpetrators as law enforcement is currently investigating several leads.
A memorial service was held for Mphahlele at the Sankopano in Alexandra on August 7 before he was buried at his home village in Ga-Mphahlele, Limpopo, on August 9.
