It is with great sadness that during the Youth Month in South Africa we hear of a sad event of a student that was shot and seriously injured by police. This shows that as a country, we are still far from being free. The act by the South African Police Service officials have once again taken us aback and reminded the nation of the sad times during the apartheid era when students were shot and killed for demanding their right to education.
The shooting of an 18 year old student Mawande Ngoyo from Lindelani Senior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape who is in a serious condition in hospital is really saddening and is raising question of whether as South Africans are we free indeed.
Everyday we hear about brutal acts of police when dealing with public protests and this is deeply worrying that live ammunition are being used.
As the United Democratic Movement, we are against the vandalism of properties when members of the public are not happy with service delivery and other things but the use of live ammunition is not acceptable at all.
We therefore are calling upon the Police Minister, Nathi Nhleko, to come up with ways of dispersing and dealing with large gatherings.
We would also like to wish a speedy recovery to Mawande.
Statement issued by UDM SECRETARY GENERAL – Mr Bongani Msomi
