Kimberley - A man was shot five times by a police officer following an altercation on a farm close to Roodepan.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) is investigating the death of 29-year-old Thabo Majoro, a Lesotho national and a cattle herder, who sustained several bullet wounds during an altercation with police at his home.
Eyewitness, Amogelang Maropo, said that he had been out milking cows when he saw two police officers and a neighbour, who had been involved in an altercation with Maropo a few days earlier, arrive at the home of the deceased.
“I saw two police officers and this neighbour at Majoro’s shack shortly before 9am on Friday morning,” the shaken witness told reporters shortly after the incident.
“They went inside and started speaking to him.
“I heard banging coming from inside the shack as if they were fighting. That is when I went to get a closer look.”
The confrontation moved outside where the deceased allegedly began hitting one of the officials with a knobkierie.
“He (the deceased) was very aggressive and was shouting at the police. He started hitting one of them with the knobkierie and that is when the officer went for his gun.
“I heard four shots as the policeman was retreating and Thabo fell down . . . a fifth shot was fired which hit him in the neck.”
The deceased had been working for Mary Varland since arriving in Kimberley from Lesotho more than a decade ago.
“Thabo has been with me for 11 years now and I’m shocked by what happened here this morning,” Varland said. “He was a good person with a wife and young child. He was an incredibly hard worker.”
“Even if he did use a knobkierie, there is no reason to do what those policemen did. They could have stopped him simply by shooting him once in the leg. There was no need to shoot him five times and take his life.”
The IPID has confirmed that a case of murder was being investigated.
“Apparently the police were on a suspect raid,” national spokesperson, Robbie Raburabu, said. “They wanted to arrest the deceased for an alleged robbery but the suspect became violent and attacked one of the police officers with a knobkierie. The officer shot and killed the deceased.
“A case of murder is being investigated by IPID. The injured officer is recovering in hospital.”
The traumatised partner of the man who was shot dead by police on a farm near Roodepan is demanding answers after losing a person she described as the true love of her life.
A distraught Suzelle Steenkamp could not hold back her tears on Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after the father of her two-year-old child, Thabo Majoro, 29, was gunned down in front of her by a member of the SAPS.
Steenkamp said that the two of them had been sleeping when two officers entered their shanty along with a neighbour who had been involved in an altercation with the couple a week earlier.
“When I saw the policemen coming in, I screamed and they told me to be quiet,” she said. “Thabo stood up and as he did so they grabbed him, pushed him back onto the bed and put a gun to his head.
“They then pulled him outside and he ran to get a knobkierie.”
According to Steenkamp, one of the officers went for his service pistol.
“Thabo hit the one with the gun on his arm while the other one was telling his colleague to shoot. There was no warning or anything. He just shot him five times.”
According to Independent Police Investigative Directorate, the officers went to the scene to attend to a robbery investigation, but Steenkamp claimed that they were there because of an altercation the couple had had with a neighbour.
“The trouble started last weekend when Thabo and I went to watch soccer at a local tavern. The man who came with the police had started trouble with me and Thabo intervened. He still offered to buy the man a beer to resolve the problem.
“When the man started choking me, Thabo told him to stop and went to get that same knobkierie (he used on the police officer). He was accused of assault.”
The couple had been together for seven years.
As a Lesotho national, Majoro’s body will be taken back to his homeland where the funeral will take place.
“We were inseparable,” Steenkamp said. “I would always go with him into the field when he tended to the cattle. We did everything together. I loved him very much.”
DFA