Former ‘poo-thrower-in-chief’ Loyiso Nkohla shot dead

Former ANC Youth League activist Loyiso Nkohla has been shot dead at the Philippi Railway Station in Cape Town.

Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi, has told the media that the circumstances around the shooting are currently under investigation.

He also confirmed that three others were injured in the shooting.

According to reports, Nkohla had been addressing a meeting in Philippi when he was shot dead.

Nkohla, a former City of Cape Town councillor, was apparently with another former ANC councillor, Thembinkosi Pupa, when the shooting occurred. They were there representing the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) and engage with shack dwellers who were occupying the train station.

According to witnesses, Pupa was also shot and taken to the hospital for treatment.

Nkohla had held leadership positions in four political parties, having done most of his cross-overs in the last six years, and even becoming a meme for it.

ALSO READ: One man, four political parties: Who is Loyiso Nkohla really?

Political career

Nkohla began his political career in earnest in 2002, when he was elected as a deputy secretary in an ANC branch in Nyanga, Cape Town. He was 20 years old.

In 2008 he was elected deputy chair of the Dullah Omar region in Cape Town, and in 2011 he became an ANC councillor.

In 2013 he famously helped lead a protest against the controversial ‘bucket system’ in the DA-run metro. This would propel him to national fame for his and his comrades’ so-called poo protests.

It resulted in him being arrested for violating the Civil Aviation Act, after he and a few others were caught on camera dumping human waste at the Cape Town International Airport.

ALSO READ: #TBT: ‘Our faeces did not commit any crime’

ANC MP, Faiez Jacobs, conveyed his condolences via a tweet, and used the platform to criticise the DA government.

“I am sitting here in my Athlone office and it is with great sadness that we learn of the killing of comrade Loyiso Nkohla,” he says.

*Additional reporting by Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni