Durban - A security guard was convicted in the Durban Regional Court on Monday of killing an Inkatha Freedom Party member.
Magistrate Trevor Levitt found Skhumbuzo Nxumalo guilty of shooting dead IFP supporter Cebisile Shezi near the Thembalihle railway station in KwaMashu on October 6, 2012.
Nxumalo fired shots into a crowd of supporters who had converged on the National Freedom Party councillor's house that he had been assigned to protect.
Nxumalo had argued during his trial that he found himself facing scores of IFP supporters threatening to burn down the house of the councillor Mgezeni “Bhungu” Gwala.
However Levitt rejected Nxumalo's version of events that the crowd had entered the property.
He said that although Nxumalo had not specifically intended for Shezi to be killed, he should have foreseen that someone could have been killed.
The shooting happened after Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had addressed IFP supporters at a sports field in A-section KwaMashu earlier that day. He did so in an attempt to reduce tension after the abduction of IFP councillor Themba Xulu.
Xulu was out on bail after being arrested for allegedly trying to burn down Bhungu Gwala's house. Xulu's body was found the next day. He had been shot.
Sentencing was expected later on Monday. - Sapa