Father of slain murder suspect alleges foul play
Lebogang Mosikare | Tuesday January 19, 2016 15:02
He wants private investigations to be conducted in order to find out what really happened on that fateful day. He suspects that the police will protect fellow officers in the case. He feels the police shot and killed his son when in actual fact he was not connected to the murder case. On January 8, the police released a press release stating that they had shot a Zimbabwean man (Xiniso Vundla) following some skirmishes in Ditladi on the evening of January 7.
“The Zimbabwean was a suspect in a case of murder and the police had been in pursuit of him in the build up to the incident,” says the release.
Xiniso, Farai Dube (25), Canious Ncube (19), Pati Sibanda (25) and another suspect not before court allegedly murdered Tshepo Gabana at Ditladi village near Tonota on January 6.
The suspect’s father, Mthulisi Vundla, came to Mmegi offices on Friday claiming that the police shot his son for the mere fact that he was accompanying a person suspected of murder.
He produced a certificate of death showing that the cause of his son’s death was multiple gunshot wounds. The certificate showed that Xiniso (16) was employed as a farm labourer at Ditladi. Narrating his version of the story, Mthulisi said his son came to Botswana last year around September. Mthulisi said according to the niece of the farmer who had employed Xiniso, the police came to the farm where Xiniso was staying.
The police went to the farm accompanied by the farmer’s niece at night. Mthulisi said when they reached the farm, the niece called out Xiniso’s name. “Xiniso and Canious came out of the house. They were not aware that the farmer’s niece was accompanied by the police. Police then started talking to Canious. By that time, Xiniso was standing about three metres behind Canious and the police car. The niece said she heard police saying ‘bona koo’ meaning watch out then heard three gun shots,” said Mthulisi adding that she then heard Xiniso groaning from the ground. Mthulisi said his son was shot on the right side of the ribs and the bullet penetrated his body and got out on the left side of the ribs.
He stated that Xiniso was certified dead by doctors at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital.
Mthulisi added: “My son was just shot in the cross-fire. Canious was shot in the hand and a knife fell from his pocket when he ran away. To make matters worse, the police refused to show us the statements of people they had interviewed in order for us to know and appreciate what really transpired during the shoot out.”
When the accused appeared in court last week Canious was clutching a bandaged hand, which he told the court, was caused by a bullet.
Police spokesperson Dipheko Motube said investigations in the matter are still continuing.
“In incidents like this an inquest docket is opened to find out what really happened. The inquest will reveal if it was justifiable to shoot the suspect or not. Our investigations are still continuing,” said Motube.