Troops hit, stole from people and shot barking dogs during lockdown, ombud told

Details have emerged of how South African soldiers allegedly terrorised people during the lockdown last year, confiscating liquor then drinking it, and even killing dogs that barked at them.

The accusations are part of a report by the military ombud.

It was presented this week at parliament's joint standing committee on defence.

The report said there were 56 complaints against the soldiers. At the time, the troops were deployed to enforce the government's strict lockdown regulations at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The complaints ranged from allegations of assault, damage to property, and heavy-handedness by soldiers.

Some of the incidents took place at about the time when a man living in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra, Collins Khosa, was killed, allegedly by a soldier.

The chief director responsible for operations in the ombud office, Dinkie Dube, said the number of complaints was the highest received in one financial year since the office's establishment in 2012.

There were only two such complaints in the financial year preceding the one under review, and four in the year before that.

The ombud's office gave details of some complaints it is investigating. It would not reveal the identities of those making the complaints.

A woman complained that on March 20 last year, soldiers who were patrolling the street on which she lived shot and killed her dog when the animal barked at them. She said the dog posed no danger to the soldiers.

"She alleges that she picked [up] an empty shell casing believed to be from the bullet that was used to shoot her dog," says the report.

The woman reported the incident to police, who did not investigate, it says.

A neighbour who witnessed the incident took a video of the shooting and posted it on social media.

The owner of the dog indicated that after the incident she was approached by an investigator from the SPCA who conducted a postmortem and confirmed that the dog had died from a bullet wound.

In another matter, lodged last year in April, a tavern owner in Jamestown, Eastern Cape, complained that police officers and soldiers burst into his establishment, which had been closed earlier that month. He said they drank his alcohol and threw empty cans at him before assaulting him.

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The police officers were also accused of stealing about R25,000 from the cash register and alcohol worth R300,000, which they allegedly loaded into their vans.

According to the ombud, the incident was captured on video and the identity of the soldiers could be established by the footage.

In another case, a woman in Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, said that in May she saw people being shot at and assaulted.

She had been walking from a neighbour's house at the time. She said the soldiers hid on a nearby mountain before the attack.

Her uncle was among those assaulted and he suffered head injuries and a broken arm.

The woman said that since the alleged assault, soldiers and police officers had been coming to her home.

A woman complained that on March 20 last year, soldiers who were patrolling the street on which she lived shot and killed her dog when the animal barked at them. She said the dog posed no danger to the soldiers

They had threatened to assault other family members and burn down the family's home.

A man from Glencoe, KwaZulu-Natal, complained that while he was driving from work on May 19 last year, he was stopped by police and soldiers who found a packet of cigarettes on him.

The man said he had bought the cigarettes before the lockdown.

The soldiers allegedly told him to throw the cigarettes on the ground because smoking was illegal.

"They also asked him what was he doing in the streets during lockdown," according to the ombud's report.

When the man showed them that he and his passenger had a permit to go to work, he was told to "shut the f*** up and stop trying to be clever".

One soldier allegedly hit the rear-view mirror of his van with a rifle.

The soldier went on to threaten to shoot the man when he tried to look for his name tag on the soldier's uniform, according to the report.

The man took down the registration numbers of the police and army vehicles. He said the police would not open a case when he reported it at the local police station.

"He later saw the same vehicles driving around his street. They followed him to his house, which made him feel extremely unsafe, and [he was] threatened by those who are supposed to protect him."

A woman told the ombud that she was driving with her brother-in-law and her son in Alexandra, Johannesburg, on March 30 last year at about 10pm when they were stopped by soldiers, police and Johannesburg metro police officers.

They were told to get out of the vehicle and she was forced to roll on the ground. Her brother-in-law was allegedly put in a sewer.

The woman said they were accused of being drunk. She said this was untrue.

"The complainant states that their human rights were violated," the report says.

Dube said the ombud's office had finalised 39 of the cases and 17 were still being investigated.

Of the finalised investigations, preliminary reports had been issued to affected parties or were undergoing quality assurance.

Dube told MPs the ombud had dismissed a number of cases because the complaints were scant and lacking the detail required to lodge a formal complaint with the office.

Military ombud Lt-Gen (retired) Vusumuzi Masondo said the law was prescriptive in the procedure of lodging a complaint. It had to be submitted in writing to the office.

He said this was difficult under the restrictive lockdown regulations.