Video: The Death of Damian Ahrendse

On a Friday evening in December 2013, at the start of the school holidays, 15-year-old Damian Ahrendse was shot and killed near his mother’s house in Wesbank, on the Cape Flats. Witnesses say that a police officer pulled the trigger. An autopsy report concluded that Damian had been shot in the back. Yet, the policeman implicated in the shooting walked out of his disciplinary hearing unpunished. Why?

With unprecedented access to the tapes from this hearing, Viewfinder put our ongoing investigation’s findings to the test: can these proceedings be manipulated to protect brutality accused officers from consequence? Our latest exposé is out soon. Meanwhile, this short film introduces you to Damian Ahrendse’s mother, Klarina Reed, and her recollections of the day that her son died.