Malema gives 'cowardly' police a tongue-lashing over Wits shooting

EFF leader Julius Malema said his party would get to the bottom of the death of a man when the police fired rubber bullets at students in Johannesburg.

Mthokozisi Ntumba was killed on Wednesday when the students took to the streets to  protest against their financial exclusion from university.

Ntumba was hit by a bullet as he came out of a clinic, according to reports from the scene.

Speaking after his appearance at the Randburg magistrate’s court - where he and MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi are on trial for allegedly assaulting a police officer in 2018 - Malema said the EFF would get justice for Ntumba.

“We are sending our condolences to the family of the deceased person who was killed innocently. He was not involved even in the peaceful protest. Even if he was, there was no reason to kill him. We will get to the bottom of this,” Malema said.

“We will get justice for that person. We want the police officer who killed this person to be held accountable and we want SAPS itself to pay more money for acting irresponsibly.

“Here you have young kids who are protesting for education - not for beers, not for a festival and not for a freshers’ ball. They are fighting to be registered so that they can be educated and graduate from unemployment, and they get killed by the ANC because the ANC is led by a man who killed innocent souls in Marikana.

“They have no respect for black life and they kill black people with ease.”

He said the country needed the “people’s police”, who would sympathise with members of the public, including students.

“We should have police who when they see innocent children, immediately sympathise with them - not these blue-uniformed, bloodthirsty police who are cowards, who always want to show their bravery by killing harmless souls, unarmed children, the same way apartheid [police] did.

“There is nothing to salute about these police, who shoot at innocent children who are thirsty and hungry for education.”

Malema described the SA police as “cowards”.

“They must first fall in love with the people of South Africa, then it will not be easy to shoot at children.

“What happened to water cannons? What happened to the shields to push the children back? What happened to public order policing? [They] are bloody illiterates, who have no idea what it means to control crowds.

“They think black people can only be controlled with pain and blood.”

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