The 16-year-old killed with a semi-automatic rifle by a policeman in Bramfischerville, Soweto, was linked to a schoolboy gang operating in the area.
And, just hours before he died, Thato Mokoka was involved in a stabbing with pupils from Kgatelopele Secondary School, teachers at the school said Thursday.
Thato, a Grade 9 pupil at Kelokitso Comprehensive School in neighbouring Meadowlands Zone 9, was killed around 11pm on Tuesday by an R5 rifle that had been on its automatic setting in the possession of a 41-year-old student constable when it discharged.
The officer, a sector police patrolling officer in Dobsonville, had gone with his colleague, a warrant officer, to a shack where they believed a group of gangsters, known as the BWA, gathered.
Jabulani police spokesman Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said that earlier that day, several residents had complained at the Dobsonville police station about a group of boys who were terrorising schoolchildren and had been brandishing guns.
They pointed to Thato’s shack, behind his grandmother’s house, as the boys’ meeting spot.
The officers had planned to arrest Thato and get him to show where the other boys in his group lived.
Makhubela said there were 10 boys in the gang – some were still at school and others had left.
“According to the officers, they thought those guys were dangerous, and their weapons were ready to go into a dangerous situation. They were ready for attack,” Makhubela said.
At the time of his death, Thato had been brought out of the shack and was lying on his stomach with his hands in the surrender position.
Seven shots were fired, but according to the Independent Complaints Directorate’s Moses Dlamini, their reports reflected that only three of those bullets hit Thato – once in the back, once in the forehead, and once in the abdomen.
Yesterday, teachers at the school painted Thato as a troubled youth and said he was not formally registered at the school. “He was a casual learner at our school and was not registered here,” said a senior staff member.
The staffer said teachers found out only after Thato’s murder that he was not registered at the school.
“He would come dressed in our school uniform, and so it wasn’t easy for the teachers to notice,” he said.
Thato was officially registered at Kelokitso Comprehensive School in Meadowlands Zone 9, which was confirmed by teachers and pupils at the school
Hours before he was murdered, scuffles involving rival gangsters had broken out, teachers said.
According to a staffer, hours after Thato’s death, one of his close friends, who he was often seen with, was arrested for selling dagga to pupils at school.
On the day Thato was murdered, he said, a pupil was robbed and stabbed by gangsters while on his way home from the school.
A group of youths belonging to a rival gang then went to confront those who had robbed their member. During the brawl that broke out, one of the youths sustained serious injuries and had to be hospitalised.
It is from this gang-related fight, the staffer said, that the police linked Thato to a firearm that was alleged to have been used.
“These kids are very dangerous. It’s common knowledge that crime is rife here and most of it is committed by the youth,” said the staffer.
Meanwhile, Dlamini said no one had been arrested for the killing, and the investigation was still under way – ballistic tests would be done and the crime scene reconstructed.
The 41-year-old student constable implicated would have completed his practical training this month and become a fully fledged constable in March. - The Star