Former ANC MP shot dead

2003-05-16 10:33

Cape Town - A former African National Congress member of parliament was shot dead in Mitchell's Plain on the Cape Flats late on Thursday night, Western Cape police said on Friday.

Superintndent Nina Kirsten said Reginald Oliphant, 53, was confronted by a man while seated in his vehicle. A shot was fired, hitting Oliphant in the head.

He was admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital but died shortly afterwards.

ANC spokesperson in the Western Cape Gert Witbooi said the party was shocked at the senseless killing.

Witbooi said Oliphant had been an ANC member in the national assembly from 1994 to 1999.

"Uncle Reggie" was a prominent civic and UDF activist and chairperson of the Southern Cape region in the eighties. He was also a founder member of the former Bridgetown Civic Movement and the Saamstaan Newspaper.

Witbooi called on anyone with information to co-operate with the investigators to bring the perpetrator to book.

Oliphant leaves behind his wife Elizabeth, 56, four daughters and a son.

- SAPA