Ntumba verdict a blow to rule of law

Sixteen months ago Mthokozisi Ntumba was shot and killed while walking out of the MyClinic Health Care on De Beer Street in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. 

A classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was shot, allegedly by public order police who were dispersing protesting university students.

Dr Tebogo Sedibe, with whom Ntumba had consulted shortly before his death, would later testify that when he found the young father lying just outside his rooms, he had what appeared to be a gunshot wound to his chest.

Circumstantial evidence suggests that Ntumba was shot at close range by police who had just jumped off the Nyala police vehicle that arrived at the scene just seconds before.

On Tuesday, however, the Johannesburg high court acquitted the four accused policemen – Tshepiso Kekana, 27, Cidraas Motseothatha, 43, Madimetja Legodi, 37, and Victor Mohammed, 51 – after concluding that there was not enough evidence to suggest they were the shooters. 

The ruling is devastating, not least because the handling of the case by the state left much to be desired. For example, the court heard how forensic investigators found no bullet casings at the scene on the day of the shooting, but would inexplicably find this evidence in the following days when the scene was reconstructed. 

On the basis of this, it was reasonable for the court to find – as it did – that the scene may have been compromised, calling into question the integrity of the evidence presented. Most concerning, however, is what appears to be poor handling of the video footage evidence, which would ultimately be the undoing of the state’s case.

Footage from the clinic, which seems to better identify the suspects was not admitted to court as evidence, partly because a technician who was listed as a witness from whom the footage was sourced inexplicably disappeared into thin air. 

There is no evidence in the public domain to demonstrate the lengths to which the state went to find him or other witnesses who could assist the court to engage with the evidence.

In the absence of this, it is reasonable to wonder if the state did everything it could to get justice for Ntumba and his family.

It appears that once again our law enforcement failed spectacularly to deliver justice.