Alleged drunken police killing of Diepsloot teen sparks outrage

Angry residents in Diepsloot took to the streets on Sunday, protesting outside the township’s police station after a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed, allegedly by a drunkpolice officer. The teenager, Thabani Akhona Mazibuko, a grade 11 pupil at Iterele Comprehensive School, was reportedly shot four times on Saturday night less than a kilometre from the police station. Eyewitnesses claim the shooting happened when Mazibuko tried to intervene as policeofficersassaulted his friend after a dispute involving a group of girls.

Tshwarelo Maluleka, Mazibuko’s friend, said he had been escorting the four girls home. “A white VW Polo with three police officers stopped in front of us. They tried to take the girls and started harassing them.

I told them they can’t do that, and they started beating me,” he said. Maluleka, who had stab wounds on the palm of his hand, alleges the police officers had tried to stab him and he had used his hand to block the attack. “I saw the first officer shoot him in the chest.

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I quickly closed the door, and then I heard three more gunshots.” “I heard someone shouting my name, asking them to stop beating me. I didn’t know it was Thabani. He even threw something like a bottle trying to stop them,” he said.

“They left me in the car and ran after him. I managed to escape and went to get help. When we came back, we found their car, and it was full of blood, weed [dagga] and pangas inside,” he said.

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