‘Lucky to be alive’
IPID investigates the attempted murder of young KwaMthethwa man
POLICE officials are under the microscope after the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) launched a probe following an attack of Sbusiso Isaac Nsimbi (28) of KwaMthethwa area in September last year.
A month after Nsimbi gained consciousness from a three months coma, IPID national spokesperson, Robbie Raburabura, said the KZN unit is conducting a huge manhunt to bring his attackers to justice.
Nsimbi was gunned down in his home at eBhubhubhu Reserve, in what is believed to have been a police attempt to execute him.
It is alleged while sleeping, a group of armed men forced entry at his home and opened fire.
They apparently broke the bedroom window and the front door before they riddled him with bullets.
The culprits fled the scene – leaving him in a pool of blood, fighting for his life.
‘When the window broke, I phoned my neighbour to call the police and used my bed as a shield to prevent bullets from hitting me,’
‘The first bullet struck my throat and came out at the back of my neck. The second hit my stomach and also came out from the back, and the third wounded my left arm. I am lucky to be alive,’ he said.
According to Nsimbi, while bleeding profusely he grabbed his spear and bush-knife in an attempt to defend himself.
‘They entered the house and pushed me with my face down on the floor. They screamed ‘he is dead’, and left,’
KwaMbonambi police swiftly attended to the scene with an ambulance, and rushed him to Ngwelezana Hospital where he spent three months in a coma.
Two days after the vicious attack, his family opened a case of attempted murder with KwaMbonambi SAPS, and it was moved to IPID.
In a surprising twist of events, when Nsimbi gained consciousness in hospital, police had charged him with pointing of a firearm.
‘They told me, people who came to my house were members of a special police unit from Durban. They said, a toy gun was found at the scene, and I apparently used it to scare the police,’ said Nsimbi.
However Nsimbi denied any knowledge of a toy gun when he appeared at Mbonambi Magistrate’s Court earlier this month.
All charges against him were then dropped, owing to lack of evidence.
Four months later Nsimbi has fully recovered, and now seek justice.
He is currently in hiding until all investigations by the IPID are completed.
‘I fear for my life and can’t go home for now,’ he said.
