Cape Town – A homeless man was allegedly shot dead by a law enforcement officer in Chester Road, Rondebosch in Cape Town on Sunday.
The 22-year-old officer is believed to have gotten into a scuffle with the homeless man over the dousing of a fire where the yet-to-be-identified man was cooking a meal.
In a statement, GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron said the City law-enforcement officials responded to a complaint from a resident about a small fire on which members of the regular local homeless community in Rondebosch were cooking a meal outdoors.
On arrival, the officers instructed the homeless people to extinguish the fire.
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A scuffle over the dousing of the fire ensued and it culminated in one of the officers fatally wounding the deceased.
“The incident raises more disturbing questions about the City’s Municipal Police Service and its conduct. The dangerous conditions under which many communities live are made even more dangerous by uniformed but undertrained law enforcement officers.
“Shooting someone dead over a pot of food also, once again, underscores the DA-led City’s deplorable victimisation of homeless people,” Herron said.
GOOD Party also raised its concern regarding the training of City law-enforcement officials.
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“These Learner Law Enforcement Officers are deployed after only six weeks training compared to a SAPS Learner Constable who is deployed after 12 months of academy training.
“Their deployment is strongly reminiscent of PW Botha’s so-called “kitskonstabels”, instant cops with virtually no training who were sent out to crush the resistance to apartheid in the 1980s,” Herron said.
The officer is now facing a charge of murder and will appear in the Wynberg Magistrate court on Tuesday.
? READ |@CityofCT Law enforcement officer shoots homeless person in the face. The as-yet-unnamed man died at the scene. The incident raises more disturbing questions about the City’s Municipal Police Service & its conduct. Full statement: https://t.co/3CJjt5ZF9b@geordinhl
— GOOD (@ForGoodZA) January 10, 2022
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Compiled by Odwa Shumi
