WEDNESDAY, 2.30PM
A POLICEMAN on Tuesday told the Shell House inquest how he fired 10 shots from his R5 automatic rifle to prevent a man escaping after he shot and killed policeman during a march by 20 000 Inkatha Freedom Party supporters through central Johannesburg on March 28 1994.
The inquest is examining the cause of death of 19 marchers killed on the streets of Johannesburg. In all, at least 50 people lay dead in the wake of the march, called to protest the country’s first democratic elections and to ddemand constitutional recognition for the Zulu king.
Sergeant Hendrik de Klerk told the Johannesburg High Court that he shot at a man in the Library Gardens in the city centre after he had shot a policeman in the chest. The policeman later died. After arresting the fleeing suspect, De Klerk seized a .45 pistol from him. Shortly after that, De Klerk seized an AK47 and a .303 rifle from the bodies of two marchers lying dead near the man he arrested. Shortly before this, he said, a spear had been thrown at him. Soon afterwards a full-scale firefight broke out at the Library Gradens, as shown to the court on several police videos.
The inquest continues.