Police
never investigated my case – angry dad
May 17 2012 at 09:00am
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Botho Molosankwe
botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za
Thirteen years ago, Mbongiseni Magagula was shot in
the leg, allegedly by a police officer. In matric at the time, he failed his
end-of-year exams. He also could no longer play soccer, his favourite sport. He
spent three months in hospital.
His dreams of being a police officer also diminished
in front of his eyes. One leg is now shorter that the other and he cannot stand
for longer than an hour, so what chance did he stand of chasing after
criminals?
He has approached the police, the courts and the
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid). But Magagula is yet to get
help.
All the doors have been shut in his face and his
matter seems to be forever buried.
“Maybe it is because it happened in the rural areas.
But I blame the police. They never investigated this matter because they wanted
to protect their colleague.
“I don’t even know the person who shot me, but I have
to live with what they did to me. I had dreams but never realised them,” the
32-year-old man said.
On the day he was shot, Magagula and his fellow
Dwaleni High School pupils had gathered at the Pongola magistrate’s court in
KwaZulu-Natal. They were there for the appearance of a man accused of raping
and killing their 13-year-old schoolmate.
After the court appearance, the accused was driven out
of court in a police car. As the school- children chased after the police car,
Magagula felt something hit him on the leg.
“While others were shot with rubber bullets, I was
shot with a live round,” he recalled.
Magagula said he spent months in hospital.
Officers took his statement from his hospital bed. He
wore a leg brace for six months.
“I failed my matric miserably. I could not repeat
because my younger brother and I were being cared for by my grandmother. She
would not be able to support me again.
“When I enquired from the police about my case, they
kept saying they were investigating,” he said.
With one bad leg, Magagula headed to Joburg. He lived
with his uncle but could not find a job that would accommodate his injury.
Then, in 2004, he came across a newspaper article
about the Ipid. He went to their offices immediately and asked them to
investigate his matter.
However, when the Ipid contacted him after their
investigations, they informed him that the prosecutor had declined to proceed
with the case.
Colonel David Herbs, station commander of the Pongola
police station, said an attempted murder case had been opened, investigated but
no one charged.
The prosecutor, he said, haddeclined to prosecute in
May 2000.
Magagula contacted the Ipid again in April this year,
desperate for answers which he believes will help him get closure.
Asked whether the Ipid would look into the matter
again, spokesman Moses Dlamini said they did not have a mandate over the
decisions of a prosecutor and could not get involved.
While Herbs had said the case opened was of attempted
murder, Dlamini said what they had before them was a case of assault with the
intent to do grievous bodily harm.
“I don’t see any cover up because it went to the
prosecution.
“If it had not been investigated at all, then we would
have possibly looked at it,” Dlamini said.
He advised that Magagula contact the Director of
Public Prosecutions or the National Prosecuting Authority for assistance.
