A heartbroken mother blames police for the death of her son after they came looking for him at her house, and shot him as he tried to run away.
Twenty-four-year-old Siyabonga Tembani was killed last Tuesday, after he allegedly resisted arrest when police came to his home following his identification by a witness connecting him to an armed robbery.
A heartbroken mother blames police for the death of her son after they came looking for him at her house, and shot him as he tried to run away.
Twenty-four-year-old Siyabonga Tembani was killed last Tuesday, after he allegedly resisted arrest when police came to his home following his identification by a witness connecting him to an armed robbery.
Tembani said the police had come earlier that day and searched her son's room while he was not at home. They then left, according to Tembani, without saying anything to her.
Later that day they came back which is when Siyabonga was shot. He was taken to Settlers' Hospital, but was referred to Livingston Hospital in Port Elizabeth the following morning, where he later died.
The grieving mother said that the police didn't inform her that her son had died. She only received the news from her daughter who lives in Port Elizabeth, after she had gone to the hospital to check on her brother.
Tembani blames police for the death of her son, and said they acted irresponsibly. “He was unarmed and tried to run away from the police, and they just shot him, she said. She also claimed that the police didn't produce a warrant for his arrest. I need answers,” the shaken woman said.
She was sent from pillar to post at the Beaufort Street Police Station when she tried to enquire about her son's death, Tembani said. “The police never told me who shot my child, I was just told that the officer is on leave,” she said.
Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender confirmed the incident and said that Siyabonga was being investigated in a recent case of armed robbery. [He] fled when the police tried to apprehend him, and he was armed with a knife, Govender reported. She said the police are investigating a case of murder, and the officer who shot him is still on duty.
