By Fred Kockott
Before he died in a hail of police bullets, kwaMaphumulo taxi boss Bongani Mkhize made one of the most startling interventions in the annals of South African law.
He secured a High Court interdict to forbid the police from killing him.
They killed him anyway - less than three months after the restraining order was granted.
"It is arrest that concerns me, causes me to fear for my life... I verily believe my life is in danger from members of the South African Police," Mkhize wrote in his application to the High Court.
This was after six other taxi men had already been killed by police investigating the murder of one of their colleagues, Superintendent Zethembe Chonco.
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The High Court order did Mkhize little good. He died in a hail of police bullets in broad daylight in Durban's Umgeni Road on February 3 this year. In the police version, Mkhize opened fire on arresting officers and was killed as they shot back.
It was not detectives seeking suspects in the Chonco murder case who killed Mkhize, but a heavily armed contingent from the National Intervention Unit - the SAPS's premier specialised Swat team.
Now, eight months after the killing, police have yet to disclose any details of their investigations into the shooting.
At the time, they indicated that Mkhize was sought in connection with another murder, that of a traditional leader close to both the police and the taxi industry, Inkosi Mbongeleni Zondi.
They have since confirmed that the murder docket on Chonco has been closed after the death of all wanted suspects in the case.
But the Mkhize killing is not going away. The dead taxi boss's family, their lawyer, Petrus Coetzee, and an independent forensic ballistic expert, Jacobus Steyl, are accusing both the police and the Independent Complaints Directorate - which, in terms of its mandate, is tasked with scrutinising all deaths resulting from police actions - of not properly investigating the shooting of Mkhize, or the shooting of his taxi association colleagues.
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