A CASE of attempted murder has been opened over the shooting of a 14-year-old boy on a demonstration in Hangberg, Hout Bay, Cape Town at the hands of a South African police officer.
A young Hout Bay teenager who was shot by police with rubber bullets during a protest in Hangberg over dwindling fishing quotas has undergone surgery. His name is Ona Dubula.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has confirmed that it is investigating the shooting of the young teenager.
IPID’s Moses Dlamini said: ‘A case of attempted murder was registered. We will be looking into the possibility of opening another case for failure to report to IPID.’ Dubula was shot four times during the protest. During the protest young fishermen and local people clashed with the police.
During the clashes that erupted, Dubula and two women hid behind a wooden table.
While they were hiding, a police officer shot rubber bullets at them, hitting Dubula. Two bullets entered his mouth and on Wednesday Dubula had surgery to remove one that had lodged under his tongue. Protesters witnessed him being shot in the face at close range by police while he hid behind the table.
This is the latest in a series of incidents in recent years of police heavy-handedness in Hout Bay.
Ona was hit with at least four rubber bullets – two hitting his ribs and cracking them, and another two hitting his mouth. He had ventured to the protest from about 3km away in Imizamo Yethu where he lives.
The incident came to light after a video, taken by Hangberg resident Peter Parker Michaels, exposed the actions of the police for all to see. Ona can be seen removing something from his mouth and dropping it on the sand shortly after being shot.
This was one of the rubber bullets. Another was lodged beneath his tongue. It is not yet clear if his tongue will fully heal. In the footage, Ona staggers to the roadside after being shot and a police officer approaches him, screaming: ‘What are you doing here?’ before grabbing his arm and bellowing to fellow officers to ‘take down the barricade’.
After the officer lets him go the boy falls to his knees. He struggles to get up, stumbles and falls again, spitting blood. An unknown man demands: ‘Is anyone helping this guy?’ as police file past. ‘Jesus Christ, he needs medical attention.’
‘Where the f*** are the paramedics, guys? Are you out of your f***ing minds?’ someone else screams at the police. Seconds before the footage ends, a man kneels beside Ona and puts his arm around his shoulders.Pinkie, his mother, said she wanted to open a case against the police.
She wanted to keep the bullet as evidence for reporting the case but was told by hospital staff that this was not permitted. Instead the bullet would be kept for the investigation. She said she also received a call from someone claiming to be from the police who said they would be sending a detective to take a statement from her because a case had already been opened ‘on her behalf’.
Ona has been able to speak, albeit with a slurred voice. He managed to speak to his grandmother on the telephone on Tuesday night, Pinkie said. Now all Pinkie can do is wait at his bedside until he is well enough to go home to the shack she built two weeks ago.
‘How am I going to nurse him when we get home? Will I have to carry him to the toilet?’ she said.
‘I survive on a child grant. We don’t have a toilet or a tap. We rely on neighbours.’ She collapsed on Tuesday after hearing the news of Ona’s shooting.
‘I woke up about 30 minutes later and went to my sister’s place, where I collapsed again. She helped me to the fire station, where Ona was waiting for an ambulance. I accompanied him to hospital. I have been here since. I haven’t bathed, I don’t even have money for transport to get back home.’
As Dubula waited for Ona to be wheeled out of surgery, she was haunted by memories of Andries Tatane, who was killed by a police rubber bullet in 2011 during a service-delivery protest in the Free State town of Ficksburg. ‘Police cannot be pumping bullets into children in this day and age,’ she said.
During Tuesday’s protest in Hout Bay over fishing quotas, Hangberg resident Clint October was arrested and allegedly beaten by the police, allegedly for ‘holding a petrol bomb’. October’s mother, Tessa, said three police officers had bashed down her front door in pursuit of her son, before beating him repeatedly with rifle butts. She said that the police also pointed a gun at her two children.
Over the last few years there has been a number of cases of police allegedly using excessive force on protesters in the Hout Bay area.
• Earlier this year, Songezo Ndude, a resident from Imizamo Yethu, was shot in the head and died during a protest over concerns with the reblocking process that was being undertaken following a massive fire in the area. At the time IPID said that it was investigating the case.
• In 2014, Santonio Jonkers was dragged by his dreadlocks and beaten by the police. Jonkers had been living in Die Sloot, an area in Hangberg that he was allegedly occupying illegally. His case was forwarded to IPID but in 2016 Jonkers told GroundUp that the case was still continuing.
• In 2012, four Hout Bay residents lost eyes during protests. One, Delon Egypt, still has the rubber bullet in his head. Late last year, IPID told GroundUp that a total of 17 cases was being investigated as a result of injuries sustained during the protests in Hout Bay and that the investigation was complete and was about to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
• In a meeting in Parliament in June, IPID reported that in the first half of 2016/17, there were 3,313 cases reported to it and that 1,857 of these were assault cases. There were 207 deaths as a result of police action and another 154 deaths in police custody.
The Western Cape had the highest number of assault cases at 425. IPID also said that there were ‘86 disciplinary convictions; 87 acquittals; 27 criminal convictions; 64 members were arrested for different crimes and 805 matters were on the court roll’.
A crayfisherman called Alexander Plaatjies said that the current protests in Hangberg were ‘about everything’. ‘We just want service delivery,’ Plaatjies said.
‘The initial protests were about fishing quotas, but community members also complained about the encroachment of new housing developments on their land and the closure of a factory in the area. These protests are about everything; all the problems are being highlighted in these protests.’