EFF lays charge against Ngizwe Mchunu over Durban shooting claim

Shots were allegedly fired at Economic Freedom Fighters volunteers in Durban, and the party has now laid a charge at Inanda police station against Ngizwe Mchunu.

The volunteers were preparing for the party’s provincial manifesto launch when the incident happened, the party says. EFF leaders and supporters travelled to the station to open the case, and they have named Mchunu and his bodyguards as the people who fired.

Mchunu denies it. His account is that EFF supporters provoked him and the people with him.

Two accounts, one docket

That is where the public record sits. A political party says a man and his bodyguards fired at its volunteers. The man says he was provoked by the party’s supporters. Both versions are on the record, both are attributed, and neither is a finding.

What is not in dispute is that a charge has been laid. A case opened at a police station becomes a docket, and a docket is the state’s property from that moment. It is the police who decide whether to investigate further, the National Prosecuting Authority that decides whether anyone stands trial, and a court that decides what happened.

The reason that matters is simple. No party, no movement and no individual may enforce anything by gunfire or by threat, because that authority belongs to the state and to nobody else. Discharging a firearm at people is unlawful, and if a person is hurt by it, the charge is attempted murder or murder, not a political disagreement. Intimidation and public violence are separate offences on the same statute book. A political argument is not a defence to any of them.

What the state does next

The South African Police Service now holds the complaint. The work in front of it is ordinary and unglamorous. Take statements from the volunteers who say they were shot at. Take a statement from Mchunu. Establish whether any firearm was discharged, and by whom, and recover the weapon if there is one. Check what the scene shows and what witnesses saw. Send the docket to the NPA for a decision.

That is how a charge becomes a consequence, and it is the only route available. A crowd outside a police station cannot convict anyone, and it is not supposed to try. The party did the correct thing by laying the complaint instead of settling it in the street, and the police did the correct thing by opening the station’s doors to it. Both belong in the record.

Where the state moves slowly on a case like this, the answer is not a second crowd. It is a question put to the station commander and to the NPA, in writing, and an answer that can be checked.

What it costs the people who live there

Durban residents pay for this kind of incident either way. A manifesto launch is a public event with a venue, a date and a crowd, and when shots are fired near one, the people who live on those streets are the ones who duck. Traders close early. Taxis reroute. Parents keep children indoors.

There is also a cost that does not show up in a charge sheet. Every armed political confrontation in KwaZulu-Natal makes the next one more likely, because the people on both sides arrive expecting it. That is the part the police can actually affect. Visible policing at political events, a named investigating officer, and a docket that moves are what break the expectation.

The manifesto launch itself is still scheduled for Saturday. The party has said it will go ahead, and the police have a public order responsibility at that event whether or not the charge is resolved by then.

The next dated step

The docket is with the police. The next thing a reader can watch for is whether the case is assigned to a named investigator and whether the NPA receives it for a decision. The Enquirer has asked Inanda SAPS for confirmation that a case has been registered, for the case number, and for the offence it was registered under. When that answer comes, it will be reported.

Source: SABC News (website), EFF opens case against Ngizwe Mchunu over alleged shooting