The Human Rights Commission inquiry into abuses against a Northern Cape community of Khomani San heard testimony this week from two community members who alleged they had been assaulted by members of the local police department.
A third, Petrus “Silikat” van Wyk, testified he had been with master tracker Optel Rooi on the night Rooi was fatally shot by police — the case that drew the commission to the small town of Andriesvale.
Van Wyk told the commission he ran away from the scene when shots were fired and did not discover until the next morning that Rooi had been killed.
The commission first received complaints of police misconduct last December, when Deon Noubitson reported that officers had assaulted him. Rooi was shot 10 days later while drawing water from a tap outside a bottle store.
On behalf of the Witdraai police, advocate Nicolette McKenzie said Inspector Johannes Liebenberg and Constable Wayne van Wyk had fired warning shots at two men they suspected of trying to break into a bottle store.
“According to them it was their duty. According to the community it was regarded as murder,” said McKenzie.
The Independent Complaints Directorate has recommended disciplinary action.
McKenzie suggested that other complaints against the Witdraai police came from a small minority of troublemakers. Station Commissioner Captain Martins de Wee said: “I believe in my heart that relations between the police and the community are not as bad as people are making it out to be.”
Commission chairperson Jody Kollapen did not agree and urged the Witdraai police to acknowledge there was a problem. “If there’s no acceptance that there’s a problem, there can’t be reconciliation,” he said.
Superintendent Johan Nell, who headed the police internal investigation, agreed that there was a problem and said he intended to act as a mediator.
The hearings ended on Thursday.