Docs: Live ammo used

Doctors treating a man wounded when police allegedly opened fire on Mothutlung residents in North West on Monday have confirmed that he had been shot, his family said yesterday.

"Now we know that the police used live ammunition on unarmed, harmless people," William Mahlangu said yesterday after visiting his son, Shadrack, at George Mukhari Hospital, in Garankuwa.

The father told The Times that doctors said his son would have surgery today to remove two bullets, one from his abdomen, one from his leg.

"The doctors said that one bullet went through his left leg and lodged in his right leg."

His 31-year-old son is one of two people wounded when police allegedly opened fire on protesters, killing two.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and national police commissioner Riah Phiyega visited the families of those killed yesterday as 26-year-old Lerato Seema fought for his life in a Brits hospital after police allegedly threw him from their speeding Nyala hours earlier.

Seema was lying face down between two police Nyalas when The Times arrived at the scene.

Residents said he was shoved into an Nyala with another protester, who broke free.

"The Nyala then gathered speed and we saw [Seema] flying out of the Nyala, landing on his head on the tarred road," a resident said.

Lerato Mataitsane was standing at the side of the road when Seema hit the ground.

She said a scream from inside the Nyala was heard before Seema was seen.

"No one would jump out of a vehicle moving that fast. They must have pushed him," she said.

A paramedic at the scene said Seema had serious head injuries.

"My son is lying unconscious all because he wanted to highlight our water crisis," said Seema's mother, Audrey. "They could have just arrested him and not thrown him out of a moving vehicle. I feel betrayed. I will sue the police for this."

Police spokesman Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said Seema was not pushed from the Nyala but had jumped.

"The two had been arrested for public violence. One escaped and the other tried to escape as the Nyala pulled off," he said.