Inexcusable, unacceptable

AYOUNG man from Orlando East in Soweto is counting his lucky stars this week that the police can’t shoot straight. If they could, he’d probably be dead. As it is, he’s in intensive care with a bullet wound in the arm and two in the leg. Three other shots missed him.

The police have been quite sanguine about it. It’s a case of mistaken identity, they say. A confidential informant pointed out the man’s car as one carrying illegal firearms. When Mduduzi Nkosi refused to stop, the officers opened fire and then pursued him in their car.

Here’s the rub. The officers chasing after him weren’t in uniform. The vehicle was neither marked as a police car nor did it have number plates. And, at the time of the incident, its lights weren’t on.

It would be difficult to find anyone who wouldn’t have reacted as Nkosi did, fleeing the scene. When he came across a marked police car, from the JMPD, he did pull over and surrendered.

What though of the police officers? They didn’t take statements at the scene, and the commander at the local police station wasn’t prepared to open a docket. It’s mind-boggling. The officers should have been suspended. Then they should be charged, convicted, thrown out of the police service and jailed – in that order.

We have immense empathy with the lot of those who man the thin blue line. We can only try to understand the incredible pressure they live and work under. None of this though can either explain or condone the conduct of these officers on Monday night. What does begin to explain it is this laissez faire culture introduced by erstwhile police commissioner Bheki Cele and endorsed by then deputy police minister Susan Shabangu, who urged officers to shoot to kill.

If the plainclothes officers had been slightly more competent, they would have done just that – and we would be mourning the death of an innocent man. But what is more galling is the absolute refusal by the police to act.

Mduduzi Nkosi deserves better. This country demands better.