South Africa: 'My Son Was Murdered in Cold Blood By the Police,' Father Tells Inquiry

By Caryn Dolley

Gregory Loftus, the father of a tow truck operator who was killed in a shooting in Durban in 2023, has told the Madlanga Commission that the day before this happened, he tried to interdict police officers from murdering his son. Other evidence, meanwhile, suggested his son was a "notorious" figure.

On the day before Bevan Loftus was gunned down, his father, Gregory Loftus, deposed an affidavit to try to prevent a police captain and other officers from murdering his son. Testifying at the Madlanga Commission on Thursday, 13 August, Loftus Snr matter-of-factly read from his prepared statement:

"I am the father of the late Bevan Loftus, who I strongly believe was murdered in cold blood on 1 April 2023. Bevan was murdered by the police under the guise of a legitimate police operation and at the instance of Clive Naicker, a competitor of Bevan in the tow truck industry and an alleged drug dealer."

Loftus Snr, himself a former police officer, was the commission's first civilian witness testifying about a killed relative.

On Thursday, a second retired officer also questioned the official police account of the shooting, though he challenged Loftus Snr's claim that Bevan Loftus was innocent of criminality. The hearing further exposed a strained relationship between father and son, noting that Bevan Loftus had once lodged a criminal complaint against his father.

'Murdered in cold blood'

Similar sentiments, that police officers murdered Bevan Loftus, were heard the day before when Len John, the deputy director for investigations with...

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