Police in South Africa shot dead 556 people — including 32 bystanders — last year, the highest annual total for a decade.
The increase was revealed as the father of a 30-year-old hairdresser mistakenly shot dead by police blamed the death on calls for a shoot-to-kill policy from South African President Jacob Zuma.
The death toll of 556 suspects and others up to April this year was the fourth consecutive rise recorded by the independent complaints directorate. It was almost double the 281 deaths in 2005-2006.
The toll has almost returned to the levels of the apartheid era.
David Bruce, of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, told South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper that an estimated 653 people were shot dead by police in 1976, the year of the student uprising in Soweto.
Police tactics ahead of next year’s World Cup are under scrutiny after the killing this month of Olga Kekana, who was on her way to a party in a car with three friends near Pretoria.
Police allegedly sprayed the gray Toyota with at least 13 bullets after mistaking the occupants for hijackers.
Kekana’s father, Frans Makgotla, blamed the police actions on Zuma’s rhetoric. The president has backed the demands of the new national police commissioner, Bheki Cele, for a return to apartheid-era legislation making it easier for officers to open fire on suspects without fearing consequences.
The controversy deepened on Sunday when Zuma’s African National Congress (ANC) was accused of politicizing Kekana’s funeral.
Angie Molebatsi, an ANC member of parliament, reportedly told mourners: “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 toward the police. Let’s keep on trusting them.”
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