Deputy mayor defends gruesome dog shooting video

A deputy mayor has defended the gruesome way a dog – writhing and crying in agony - was shot several times by a man with a rifle in front of children in KwaZulu-Natal.

Mthonjaneni deputy mayor Philani Ntombela‚ wearing a dark suit and crimson tie‚ encourages the shooter in a disturbing video of the incident‚ which has been distributed widely.

Mthonjaneni is a local municipality under the King Cetshwayo district in Melmoth and is run by the IFP.

In the video‚ a man with a rifle aims and shoots at the dog on a pathway in a rural area at least four times but the bullets fail to silence its yelping.

Onlookers can be heard muttering and cheering while Ntombela looks on approvingly. When the dog finally dies‚ bystanders leave but hide their faces from a person filming the incident. A young boy walks up to the animal and‚ using a knife‚ cuts off its leash. A second man in the video is holding a small firearm in his hand.

Ntombela then walks towards a Toyota Fortuner parked near to a modest home.

Ntombela defended the decision to shoot the animal when contacted early on Friday. He said the incident was being politicised.

He confirmed that it was him in the video and that it was his bodyguard who had shot the dog. "I know where this is going. It's now politics‚" he told TimesLIVE.

"That dog was terrorising everyone. It was eating people's livestock and poultry. It also ate my pregnant goats. If you look closely in the video‚ you can see there is the owner of the dog as well‚ who gave us permission to kill it‚" he said.