Umlazi unrest victim tells SAHRC gunshot wound left him unemployed
An Umlazi resident says he can no longer work as a bus driver after he was shot in the lower back in July.
Bongani Mkhize testified at the South African Human Rights Commission's hearings into the civil unrest.
He told the commission he was travelling from Montclair in the south of Durban back to Umlazi when he was flagged down by a security vehicle on the M4.
Mkhize said they searched his vehicle and found nothing.
He says another car pulled up next to them and three men stepped out.
He then heard gunshots.
He gave evidence through a translator.
"I could see now that these shots were hitting the vehicle and I could feel some passing above me, that when I let go of the door and fled.
"I heard one of them saying, 'Why are you running away?' I ran and as I was running, I then collapsed.
"When I fell, I couldn't stand up and walk again, so I crawled and held onto to the barricades. I then got a chance to hide. As I was hiding, I could feel the cramps that were due to the bullet that had penetrated into my stomach."
Mkhize says he suffered some internal damage.
He handed the commission pictures of his injuries post operation.
He says the doctor told him he could only do light labour and so he had to leave his job as a bus driver.
