Docket transferred to Ipid after Ethiopian shopkeeper dies following scuffle with police

An informal trader, an Ethiopian national, reportedly died in hospital on Thursday morning following a scuffle with police at an informal settlement in Durban.

EWN reports that the trader, Adane Emmanuel, was injured during the scuffle on Wednesday and was taken to hospital and that residents of the informal settlement – Dakota in Isipingo, south of Durban – claimed that the deceased was allegedly attacked by the police.

Police spokesperson, Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo told the Citizen that the docket in the matter has been handed over to the Independent Police Investigative Police Directorate (Ipid).

Naidoo referred this publication to the Ipid’s communications officer, Sontaga Seisa, who could not be reached for comment.

Naidoo had earlier told EWN that it had been community members who attacked the police first.

He said police officers were patrolling the area to ensure that the regulations of the Disaster Management Act were being adhered to.

“While they were there, the community mobilised, an altercation broke out against the members and resulted in a man being injured and subsequently died,” he was quoted as saying.

The publication reported that a local woman claimed that police allegedly tried to break the burglar bars of the shop and that when they were questioned about their actions, “they started to shoot us with rubber bullets”.

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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