Dead award-winning investigative journo riddle deepens

No firearm was found in award-winning investigative journalist Godknows Nare’s car after two Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) members allegedly gunned him down outside his home in Florida, west of Johannesburg, on April 17.

The officers allegedly claimed Nare was shooting at them and while Moses Dlamini, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s spokesperson, said investigators were loath to draw any conclusions yet, some aspects of Nare’s death did not add up.

“The police were following a white Hyundai, it was stolen,” said Dlamini.

“It was parked next to a blue Ford Fiesta being driven by Nare, so apparently when the driver of the Hyundai climbed into his car which the police were tracking, Nare climbed into his car as well, started it and reversed it.”

Dlamini said it was claimed when the suspect vehicle also started reversing, the Metro police thought they were together, and tried to stop Nare.

“They shot at him and he drove into a wall. The police said he was shooting at them … no cartridges were found in his car, no evidence at all, so he couldn’t have shot at them,” Dlamini said.

According to the Roodepoort Record, Nare’s brother, Thabiso, said Nare was visiting his sister in Hull Street.

Nare was apparently shot four times when the Metro cops fired 10 rounds at him. This could not be confirmed.

“When he got out of the vehicle he had his hands up, according to the eyewitnesses, but the Metro police shot him regardless. The man they arrested at the scene even told the police he did not know my brother,” Thabiso told the Record.

Former colleague Julian Rademeyer said Nare came to South Africa from Zimbabwe in the mid-90s.

“He was poor, unemployed and desperate for work. In a moment of madness, he decided to hold up a bank. If I remember correctly, he said he used a toy pistol and the teller realised it was fake and hit the alarm. The getaway driver fled and Godknows was arrested,” Rademeyer said.

Nare spent 10 years in prison. He went on to win the European Commission’s Lorenzo Natali Media Prize in 2009, and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association’s Amnesty International Award for his work exposing shocking conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons.

“I didn’t know Godknows well, but I liked him. He was a small, wiry man; shy, softly spoken with a gentle sense of humour that could lighten even the darkest of situations. He was fearless and professional,” said Rademeyer.

A friend and colleague, Paula Froelich, said Nare was one of the best investigative journalists she had known.

“I met him during my last trip to South Africa when I interviewed him about rhino poachers. He had spent six months interviewing and filming rhino poachers. During this time, his life was threatened but, as he did with all of his projects, he persevered,” said Froelich, who has raised more than R80 000 for the freelancer’s wife and child on GoFundMe.

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