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DA: Statement by Dianne Kohler Barnard, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Police, on Police shootings (19/10/2009)

19th October 2009

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It is disgraceful that an ANC member of parliament, Angie Molebatsi, attempted to appropriate the tragic death of Pretoria resident Olga Kekana, at the hands of police officers, for the ANC's political purposes, and equally distressing that she appears to have told funeral mourners that it was Ms. Kekana's "destiny" to die, so police should not be blamed for the death. Quite understandably, according to the reports, her comments were received very poorly by mourners. Ms. Molebatsi's comments were callous and cold, and she ought to publicly apologise immediately. According to reports, Ms. Molebatsi said: "One way or another, we are all going to die, regardless of whether a cop shoots you or you were ill Let's not lose hope towards the police. Let's keep on trusting them. Forgiveness is what God wants. This was her destiny [to die], let's not blame the police." Ms. Molebatsi also apparently used Ms. Kekana's funeral to criticise the media for apparently exaggerating the extent of police brutality, and for reporting "only what suits them". Ms. Molebatsi's comments about ‘exaggerating' police brutality are particularly distressing in a country where 912 people died as a result of police action or in police custody last year, and where more people were shot dead by police last year than any other year in the last decade.

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