Live ammunition fired from a shotgun at close range caused the death of a 23-year-old University of Durban-Westville student two weeks ago, a post mortem report has found.
Preliminary results of the post mortem were released on Tuesday by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), who took over the investigation from police.
The report found that Michael Makhabane, 23, died instantly when he was shot at close range with a shotgun. Makhabane died on May 16 after skirmishes between police and students on the campus.
Police were called in by campus management to restore order after student protests turned violent. They fired rubber bullets at a group of students who allegedly tried to hijack a car. In the chaos that followed, Makhabane was killed.
"We can with certainty confirm that the death was not as a result of a rubber bullet," ICD head Advocate Sticks Mdladla said.
"During the two post mortems conducted, it was established that death occurred as a result of a shotgun wound."
Mdladla said the shotgun round was fired at such close range that Makhabane's ribs on the left side of his body, where the pellets entered, were fractured by the impact.
The plastic casing containing the shotgun pellets did not even have time to disintegrate as they are meant to in order to allow the pellets to spread before hitting a target.
Instead, it only disintegrated after entering Makhabane's body just under his heart, causing fatal injuries to his major organs. The pellets perforated his heart, left lung, stomach, spleen, intestines and left kidney.
A large number of pellets, as well as the plastic casing, were removed from his body.
"Whoever fired the shot must have been aware of the consequences of such a shot," Mdladla said.
There was at this stage no evidence to suggest that the bullet had been fired by a policeman, but Mdladla said that according to information available to them, campus security was apparently not near the scene. This information has yet to be verified.
None of the campus security personnel has been interviewed.
Mdladla said according to information received from the witnesses, about 70 shots were fired on that day.
Investigators had only managed to recovered one high-velocity rifle shell from the scene.
The ICD had also not yet interviewed any of the policemen on the scene that day. Only their commanders were interviewed.
"We still have a lot to do. So far we have interviewed about 17 witnesses."
Mdladla said academics who allegedly witnessed the shooting must also be found and interviewed.
None of the persons so far interviewed had witnessed the shooting.
"There was chaos on the campus. We are still looking for someone who can give us a clear picture of what happened."
Mdladla said the directorate had not yet received the ballistics report. He would only be in a position to say who fired the shot - police or security personnel - once he received the report.
Mdladla said the directorate would also investigate claims that Makhabane had not been part of the protests, but that he was on his way to visit someone at a nearby residence.
"It is possible, but we still have to verify this."
Police claimed that Makhabane had been part of the group that allegedly tried to hijack a Honda Ballade on campus.
Mdladla said that while another student was detained in this regard, no charges have been made. Police did obtain a statement from the driver of the car.
According to Makhabane, the ICD investigation was being hampered by the fact that the university closed the day Makhabane was killed and students who may be able to shed more light on the incident were not available for interviews. - Sapa