Pretoria - A police officer was on Thursday found guilty of the murder of three people during a protest over water shortages in 2014.
Hyde Mophosho was convicted of killing Mike Tshele, Osiah Rahube and Enoch Seemela.
The high court in Pretoria also found Mophosho guilty of the attempted murder of Shadrack Mahlangu and Itumeleng Thejane and of being in the possession of unlawful ammunition.
He was one of seven police officers dispatched to a protest in Mothutlung, Brits.
Judge Letty Molopa-Sethosa said Mophosho’s version of events was absurd and ridiculous. “His evidence was riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies. He was not a truthful or impressive.”
She believed his colleagues in the public order policing (POP) unit. The officers testified that they were dispatched to the protest on January 13, 2014.
When dispatched they were given shotguns and rubber bullets, checked with their commander Lieutenant Kenneth Mashiyane.
Mophosho testified that he did not want a shotgun and instead ordered a R5 rifle.
He disputed the testimony of his colleagues by saying Mashiyane did not check the gun or ammunition as was procedure but he (Mophosho) checked it himself and confirmed that he had received rubber bullets.
All the police officers testified that they at some stage started firing at the crowd. They heard a loud sound, inconsistent with firing rubber bullets.
Mophosho said when he heard the sound he checked his firearm and found rubber bullets.
However, two days later, Mophosho told his commander, in the presence of his colleagues, that he suspected he had used the wrong ammunition. He later told the court he only said that to prompt the real perpetrator to come forward.
The ammunition was referred to as SSG and fired small pellets which Mophosho said he knew to be lethal. This type of ammunition had long been outlawed.
Asked where he got this ammunition, he said “Marikana”.
“The accused knew he had fired the wrong ammunition... He brought the SSG ammunition with him (to the protest),” the judge said.
“The accused had the criminal intention in the form of dolus eventualis to kill the people,” the judge said.
Sentencing is next month.
Pretoria News