In a harrowing turn of events, the Manenberg woman, who was injured by a rubber bullet allegedly shot by a policeman, has died of her injuries, with police confirming they are now investigating a murder case.
Latiefa Freeman, 57, was shot in her head on 17 September in Manenberg Laan. She ended up in hospital for over three weeks due to her injuries.
Her husband Abduragmaan Freeman, 57, explained that his wife of 40 years was on her way to her sister's house when children started throwing stones at each other.
He said as police pulled up at the scene, they shot rubber bullets to disperse the kids and his wife was struck.
According to their grandchildren who was with her, the ouma fell to the ground and was rushed to hospital by the community who had stopped a taxi in the road.
Abduragmaan, who is wheelchair-bound, said since the incident, not one cop had approached him.
The oupa said all he wanted was an apology, but now he has changed his mind and wants to cop who pulled the trigger to pay.
He tells the Daily Voice: “I can’t even explain how I feel. I am broken, I lost my wife because of this.
“First I would like to meet with him [the cop] and tell him how his action made me feel, but I also want to tell him I forgive him.
“Then I want the right thing to be done. I want the person in charge that day to be charged as well, and I want that person who shot [my wife] to face the consequences.”
Since their story was published last week, Abduragmaan says he has been approached by South African Human Rights (HRC) Commissioner Chris Nissen, and the social justice organisation, Cape Forum.
Nissen has condemned the incident and says the HRC will be monitoring Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) on the matter.
He says: “Law enforcement agencies, including SAPS are there to serve, protect, combat and prevent crime.
“It's unfortunate that a life is lost because of law enforcement, so as the commission we will be doing a monitoring watch on this case.”
Head of Community Activation at Cape Forum, Bernard Pieters, confirms they have also reached out to Abduragmaan to offer assistance.
Pieters adds: “It's a particularly tragic event that really should never have happened.”
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm Pojie confirms that the attempted murder case will be changed to that of murder.
He says: “The station management had made contact with her next of kin regarding the development in this case.
“Be advised that the investigation is conducted by IPID.”
However IPID spokesperson Phaladi Shuping explains that only “if the postmortem states that the cause of death is a gunshot wound, and that shot was fired by the police, then the charge will change to murder on their side”.