UPDATE: Police Shoot Unarmed Suspects in Yeoville. One Killed.

*updated from*   At the end of June, a month after the shooting that left his friend, Mike Vinthenga, dead and a young girl wounded, Elija Phekhani was released from Joburg General Hospital. The bullet that shot him in the back damaged his spleen, a portion of his pancreas and diaphragm.  Prior to being discharged he was given modest physiotherapy, though he largely thanks his Rastafari ideology, one he embraced fully 23 years ago, for his strong constitution that lead to recovery thus far. 

Elijah says he is still distressed by the incident on 30 May and continues to have nightmares from it. He even closed down his shop in Yeoville as he fears for his life for some of the people involved the shooting walk freely in the neighbourhood. The investigation is still underway by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), previously the Independent Complaints Directorate. The charges against the police involved are for the murder of Mike Vinthenga, attempted murder for Elijah and the young girl caught in the crossfire, as well as theft and falsifying evidence.

The young girl is doing fine, though obviously traumatized, and he is periodically in touch with her mother and her uncle.

Elijah also gives a somewhat different account to what happened the day of the shooting, a day that further riled the Yeoville community, especially the Rastas. He and Mike were on their way back to Elijah’s shop in an Uno when police, with no warning, opened fire on them at the corner Cavandish and Francis – where the car was momentarily stationery.  Mike was shot several times and died and on the scene. Elijah got out of the car but was shot in the back whilst he ran and a stray bullet hit the young girl’s leg.

Prostrate and wounded, he recalls the police going through his pockets taking the money he had withdrawn for the rent due the next day. He suspects they also searched Mike though he did not see this. Elijah is adamant he overhead the police as they discussed the entrapment of planting a bag of Marijuana and a toy plastic gun in the Uno.  Another frustration for him is that the witness collaborating the polices version of events, that third person was present in the car and was the one to pull out gun first, is an ex-police reservist with a number of complaints against him.    

Elijah no longer has a source of income, has not fully recovered from his wounds and is unable physically exert himself yet he feels certain good will come from the incident. Painfully aware that Rastafari are viewed as criminals by police, who are inclined use the ‘shoot to kill’ policy on them based appearance alone, he is actively involved in changing the misconceptions. Several marches have been organized by the Rastafari community to raise awareness and support for their plight.  The most recent march was held 23 July to Braamfontein Police Station to hand over a memorandum for Police Commissioner demanding Rastas be decriminalised.

Overall, he concludes, the Rastafari community is saddened by lack of media coverage and police indifference when they are persecuted, attacked and even killed at times. He is pursuing the cases brought against the police to ensure justice, not only for himself, but for Mike’s family and the little girl too.