'I pretended to be dead'
2008-02-28 08:24
Port Elizabeth - With tears running down her cheeks, a police officer has described how she lay in her colleague's blood pretending to be dead, after he'd been shot dead by a robber as she looked on.
Inspector Rachel van der Merwe, her colleague, student-constable Nkosinathi Ndolomane and two other members of the SAPS were attacked by a group of robbers on November 29.
Ndolomane died in the subsequent shooting.
Three men who appeared in the Port Elizabeth High Court in connection with the shooting, Andile Silatsha, 24, Mziwethu Mpulampula, 21 and Andile Msila, 23, are facing inter alia 11 counts of robbery and one of murder.
She knew he was dying
The three also escaped from custody when they appeared in the city's magistrate's court last month.
There was a strong police presence at the high court to ensure that they did not escape again.
Van der Merwe described the events of that night in heart-rending detail.
She and Ndolomane had dropped off two police officials at their homes in Zwide.
On the way there she saw the lights of a car reflected in their rear-view mirror.
She was immediately suspicious because she had heard earlier that a white BMW had been hijacked that night.
The car, a maroon BMW, followed the police vehicle and when it stopped at the home of one of the officials, it drew up alongside them.
The driver got out and walked over to the officers.
Van der Merwe said, when she saw he was wearing a police-issue bulletproof vest, she started relaxing.
What she did not know was that the man and his partners were not policemen and had got hold of the bulletproof vests earlier that night after they had robbed some other police officers.
Van der Merwe said when the man got to Ndolomane, who was behind the steering wheel, he ordered him to get out.
Ndolomane started laughing because he thought some fellow officers were joking with him.
She realised something was amiss when she saw a firearm in the suspect's hand. She took out her service pistol and when she cocked it, the man fired a shot through Ndolomane's window.
Van der Merwe and Ndolomane jumped out of the police vehicle and their passengers ran off.
Ndolomane fell on top of Van der Merwe outside the vehicle. More shots were fired.
At the fourth shot she heard Ndolomane beginning to choke and realised that he was dying. She heard a man speaking behind her.
While this man was taking their firearms, Van der Merwe just closed her eyes and pretended to be dead. The men then sped off in their car.
"I lay there in his blood," Van der Merwe said on Wednesday, before she started crying.
Ndolomane's next of kin who were attending the court case, also began crying.
After a short adjournment, Van der Merwe continued. She said she pushed Ndlomane's body off her and summoned help.
She pointed to Silatsha and insisted that he was the man who had shot her colleague.
It was learnt later that night that the attackers had hijacked two BMWs, a white one and a maroon one.