'Cops brought my son to me in a body bag'

Jonathan Malgas was standing in front of a shop when his leg started trembling. Before he knew it, he was falling over a corpse in a police van.

Yesterday, while still recovering from a bullet wound in one of his legs, Malgas, 22, recalled how the town of Wolseley, in Western Cape, exploded into violence on Wednesday when striking farmworkers took to the streets.

"I saw workers throwing stones. Police opened fire - first with rubber bullets and then live rounds. When I was shot, I couldn't feel a thing. My leg just started shaking," said Malgas.

Strikers, he said, loaded the injured into the police van together with the body of 28-year-old Michael Daniels.

Wolseley police station commander Charmaine Botha was said to be behind the wheel.

"She drove to the hospital in Ceres but we told her Michael was dead. She wouldn't listen. She drove very fast," said Malgas.

"We just sat there quietly and in a lot of pain. At times, we fell on Michael's body."

Daniels was declared dead at the hospital.

Malgas hiked to Wolseley from the hospital.

After the shooting, Botha was transferred to the Ceres police station.

"Why did she allow them to kill him?" asked Daniels' mother, Magdalena.

She said her son got caught up in the commotion as strikers demanded higher wages. Many of them allegedly earned less than R70 a day labouring in the fields .

"That morning he told me: 'Mummy, let's go see what is happening in town.'

"I said he should rather go alone," said Magdalena.

Shortly thereafter she received a phone call - her son was dead.

She said she sat at the police station for hours but none of the officers there could tell her what had happened to her son.

Meanwhile, angry residents gathered at the police station's gates, demanding answers.

"Then the captain [Botha] arrived with [my son's] body in the van," said Magdalena.

"We waited forever until they took my child out - in a big white bag with a zip. I pulled open the zip. It was my son. His eyes were open, his mouth was open - wide, wide, wide open."

She said she hasn't slept since.

Magdalena said she is yet to lodge a complaint against the police. For now, she is preparing for her son's funeral on Sunday.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut confirmed that there has been a change of command at Wolseley police station but gave no reason.

Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesman Moses Dlamini said: "We are aware of the allegations against the station commander and we will look into it as part of a wider investigation."