CCTV video footage of yesterday’s fatal shooting at the Steve Tshwete Municipality in Middelburg, allegedly shows that a shootout started after shots had been fired at security guards.

PPP Protection and Security armed guards opened fire at municipal employees yesterday at around 17:00, killing one person and injuring several others. The company claims that guards acted in self defence and had to be rushed to safety after the shooting.

The company says that before guards returned fire with live rounds, they initially tried to disperse the crowd with rubber bullets, ‘which only made them more violent’.

The Middelburg Observer spoke with the company, which denies any culpability for yesterday’s shooting.

According to PPP Protection and Security, four shots were fired towards their guards from the back of the municipal buildings at the staff parking lot, where employees have been gathering since the start of the strike two weeks ago.

The security company then phoned the police, who arrived at the civic centre a short while later.

The company says that the man who fired the shots was pointed out to the three female officers. They went to speak to the armed employee, who produced a licence for the weapon.

Police ordered the armed employee and his colleagues to leave the municipal area, as it was already after hours.

They allowed him to leave with his weapon.

According to the security company, the police officers informed guards that the employees were drunk and that they were leaving.

At this stage, Acting Municipal Manager, Thokozile Zulu, was still inside the municipal building.

The armed employee merely moved from the back of the municipality to the main entrance with his white Ford Ranger, the security company says.

The crowd then allegedly learnt that Zulu was still inside the building and started breaking the main entrance gate down.

This is when security officers allege they tried to disperse the crowd with rubber bullets.

After the gate fell, a horde of striking employees charged the guards. When one of them tried to disarm a guard, live shots were fired in retaliation.

“We did not escalate the violence, it was all caught on video by the municipality’s CCTV cameras,” a company spokesman told the newspaper.

He says they succeeded in taking Zulu to safety before the shootout started.

“Even after being shot at with live rounds, we tried to de-escalate the situation with rubber bullets, but it didn’t work, it just riled employees into a rabid attack force,” the company says.

The same man who the security company alleges fired the first live rounds, was one of four municipal employees shot.

The company declined to say whether the shooter was the employee who had been killed.

“He was one of four wounded,” is all the company would confirm.

The company says the weapon should never have been handed back to the drunk employee.

“All this occurred after SAPS responded to our call, and left the scene,” the company says.

• According to employee representative, Kgosi Makwati, the strike that has entered its third week will continue until demands are met.

Makwati denies that workers posed any threat to security guards. He says some of the victims sustained more than one gunshot wound.

The shooters, according to Makwati, immediately left the scene in a minibus. Workers suspect that the guards have fled town entirely.

• No arrests have been made by the police in the shooting yet.

“They were coming for the municipal manager and broke down the gates, resulting in guards having to defend their own lives,” the company says.

Guards were rushed from the premises in two minibuses for their protection, after the shootout.

• It’s not the first time striking employees have been accused of firing live ammunition.

A few months ago, Hoërskool Middelburg hostel residents had to be ordered away from the dormitory’s windows, and down on the ground, after numerous shots were fired towards the school from the municipality’s parking lot.

Police were called but the weapon could not be traced.