The family of a woman who was killed by police last month, along with five alleged gangsters accused of terrorising Pietermaritzburg, want answers as they believe their daughter was innocent.
Mandisa Phakathi, 19, died of gunshot wounds to the head when police raided a Scottsville home that had been under surveillance.
One of the occupants killed in the raid was Sphelele Ntsuntsu Mkhize, the alleged gang mastermind, who had escaped from a police truck on its way from New Prison to the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court in April.
The five men were renting a house in the suburban Scottsville area since the beginning of May.
Security officers who patrol the neighbourhood started noticing a weird pattern of activities during the day but when the sun set, the men were out and about and were often seen in different vehicles suspected to have been hijacked.
Police were tipped off and the Pietermaritzburg crime intelligence unit began investigating. An operation to apprehend the men suspected of being involved in numerous murders, business robberies and hijackings, rapes and even holding women against their will, was then planned.
Police arrived at the residence but the suspects allegedly opened fire. There was an exchange of fire and police shot and killed all seven people at the home, including Mkhize, Phakathi and another woman.
Seven firearms were found, an AK 47, a rifle, a shotgun and four pistols. Three vehicles were in the yard, two of which were hijacked.
On the night of the shooting, Police Minister Bheki Cele said the men who were killed were “notorious and very brutal”. Cele did not mention Phakathi, but her name was revealed days later with the rest of the suspects. A source told the Sunday Tribune that Phakathi was in a relationship with one of the alleged gangsters.
Her father, Malusi Phakathi said the last time he saw her was at their Panorama home on the day of the shooting when she left to collect a dress she had bought online from a Durban woman. She was to wear the dress that weekend at a relative's wedding.
When Phakathi did not return the following morning, her family was worried and her father contacted his sister to enquire whether she had spent the night with her.
“I tried calling her but could not get through and when we heard about two girls who had been killed in Scottsville, panic set in and we went to the police station. They took us to the mortuary and there she was.
“You could see that she was shot at close range and half her face was not there,” Phakathi said.
He said when the police had identified her, they had the responsibility to explain to him as her parent what had happened, especially after the minister announced that all killed were violent criminals.
“She had no criminal record and was never part of any criminal activity, and so I need to know why she was killed. It was not at night when they shot her, they saw who they were shooting. Why couldn’t they arrest her instead?
“My family wants justice, the minister cannot be silent after announcing that Mandisa was a criminal, he embarrassed us and hurt our family, and we want answers,” he said.
Phakathi said an officer from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) made contact with his family and took them to the crime scene. The officer promised that an investigation would be conducted, since then nothing had happened.
Ndumiso Bhengu, principal at Lithemba Academy, a finishing centre in Pietermaritzburg, where Phakathi had enrolled to complete business studies last year, said the school was still finding it difficult to come to terms with her death. He said she was a popular student who was kind and always polite.
Bhengu said although she had completed her studies, she still frequented the school because she was part of a local drama project that was hosted there.
“I had many conversations with her, guiding her as both her teacher and a father figure. She would always listen, even when I reprimanded her.
“She was a gentle person but at a stage where she was exploring in many ways, as other young women her age do,” he said.
Bhengu said on the day she died, she had passed by the school to see her friends.
“It’s usually said that a man doesn’t cry, but when I heard about her death the day after she was shot, I couldn’t hold my pain in.
“She was part of us and some days we wish she could walk through our gates,” he said.
The Sunday Tribune approached Cele’s office to ascertain whether he had obtained evidence directly linking Phakathi to any of the crimes allegedly committed by gang members shot by police.
The minister was also questioned on whether police were confident that they had eliminated a dangerous gang member when Phakathi was killed.
Cele’s spokesperson, Lirandzu Themba, said the ministry was not in a position to respond to questions relating to an ongoing investigation. She said the ministry would await the outcome of the probe.
Ndileka Cola of Ipid did not respond to the Sunday Tribune by the time of going to print.
Sunday Tribune