South Africa: Collins Khosa beaten to death by soldiers for sipping beer

A patrol of South African soldiers in the township of Alexandra on March 28, 2020 in full containment. REUTERS / Siphiwe Sibeko

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While the United States is on fire after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, in South Africa, a trial will open for similar facts. It was in April, at the start of containment.

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With our correspondent in Johannesburg, Noé Hochet-Bodin

Collins Khosa, 40, was drinking beer outside his house in the township of Alexandra on April 10, when soldiers barged in to enforce the new alcohol prohibition rules.

The four soldiers pour beer over his head. Khosa was then humiliated and then violently beaten, on the stomach, on the head, including kicks and rifle butts. He succumbs a few moments later, still in front of his house.

If the Khosa case is emblematic, it is only one among many. In two months of confinement, 403 complaints were filed against the police, including 271 for assaults, and 9 for murder. Figures presented by the police, surely understated, assure the United Nations Human Rights Commission in a vitriolic report on the behavior of the South African soldiers.

The Khosa family will therefore sue the army. She accuses him of hiding the truth in her investigation, where, for example, no witness was interviewed.
The Minister of Defense, she discards and wants to continue the hearings. It must be said that the Ramaphosa government relies heavily on its soldiers to enforce containment, it has deployed more than 73,000 in the country.

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  • South Africa