Johannesburg - An off-duty police officer travelling with his girlfriend allegedly shot and killed a motorist in a road rage exchange.
The incident took place in Dobsonville, Soweto, on Saturday afternoon when the two were involved in a traffic jam.
It's not clear how many shots were fired, but the officer and his companion were not injured.
While the police had painted the dead man as the aggressor, his uncle Madibeng Monama, also a police officer, rejected their allegations.
He said none of what they as a family had been told made sense.
The matter was referred to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), which is investigating the case as it involves a police officer.
Ipid’s Robbie Raburabu said that according to the information they were given by the officer - who is now behind bars facing a charge of murder - he and the deceased, Sipho Nhlapho, were in a traffic jam.
Nhlapho, 47, was alleged to have asked the police officer to move his vehicle “in an arrogant manner”.
The officer then allegedly asked Nhlapho just where he was supposed to move his car to, and that was when the shooting happened.
“The civilian took out his gun and shot at the officer and missed. The officer got out of his car and shot at the civilian. He then took the civilian's gun after shooting him,” Raburabu said.
Asked whether that amounted to destroying evidence, Raburabu said it did, but that it could also be an issue of trying to safeguard the gun as there were people around.
Raburabu confirmed that the officer's vehicle had bullet holes in it.
Nhlapho’s uncle has, however, rubbished the police officer's statement.
Monama said none of what they had been told made sense, and that his nephew was not there to speak for himself, to give his side of the story.
Speaking from the mortuary, where he was identifying his nephew's body, Monama said allegations were that an ambulance on the road had caused traffic to come to a standstill.
He said they also heard that his nephew went to the officer's car to ask him to move it as it was obstructing the traffic, then suddenly took out a gun and started shooting at the officer.
Monama said that did not make sense at all.
“You see, these lies, can you really shoot someone because they blocked the road? He is a captain, a senior officer, this is disturbing,” he said.
Monama also questioned how his nephew could have missed the officer and his girlfriend, even though he was standing and shooting from a better angle outside the vehicle, whereas the officer himself was able to shoot his target although he was seated in his car.
Monama said Nhlapho was shot four times - in the calf, the thigh, abdomen and chest.
The Star