Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Baraka Leonard Nafari, a University of Johannesburg (UJ) PhD student from Tanzania,
was murdered in the early hours of Friday, the 23rd of February 2018.
UJ’s own CCTV footage shows Baraka and a fellow UJ student running for their lives
while two men in a taxi pursue them.
The taxi then deliberately struck Baraka against the fence of the University of
Johannesburg’s Sophiatown residence in Auckland Park and killed him.
Yet, despite these facts, the driver of the taxi was arrested for driving without a license!
He was then released on police bail, and the other person in the taxi was released without
charge.
The taxi driver, according to the police, claims that Baraka and his fellow student were
makwerekwere [was it because they wore a maasai shuka?] who were armed and tried to
hijack them.
This is nonsense. Baraka was their victim – the victim of their xenophobia and
their violent hunting for money.
We refuse to let him be just another number, just another statistic.
We demand to know:
• Why did UJ protection services and Brixton Police assume that the body was that
of a homeless person? Was it so that they didn’t have to take the case seriously?
• Why didn’t UJ protection services insist Brixton Police see the footage
immediately instead of leaving it until Wednesday, 28th February 2018 and only
after pressure from some UJ staff and students and the Tanzanian Embassy?
• Why did Brixton Police believe the version of the events given by the taxi driver,
a man who they had found slumped in his taxi next to a dead body?
• Why didn’t the Police Investigating Officer see the footage before Wednesday,
28th February 2018 and only after pressure from some UJ staff and students and
the Tanzanian Embassy?
• Why haven’t UJ protection services and Brixton Police look for additional CCTV
footage from the area of the crime?
As a result of UJ protection services and Brixton Police’s inaction until Tuesday, at the
first hearing on Tuesday, 27th March 2018, the Magistrate declined to put the case on the
roll as there is no evidence disputing the murderer’s statement given to the police. Indeed,
this is the level of negligence that allows violence and murder to roam and haunt our
streets.