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Report Clearing Soldiers in South African Man's Death Sparks Anger

Darren Taylor

   JOHANNESBURG - The legal team representing the family of a South
   African man allegedly beaten to death by soldiers enforcing COVID-19
   lockdown restrictions reacted with outrage to a leaked army report that
   said they are not liable for his death.

   Forty-year-old Collins Khosa died April 10 in this city's poor township
   of Alexandra, following an altercation in his yard with security
   forces. They had accused him of drinking alcohol in public, an offense
   under emergency regulations put in place to prevent the spread of
   coronavirus.

   Witnesses say soldiers and police officers strangled Khosa, slammed his
   head against a cement wall and a steel gate, and hit him with the butt
   of a rifle. Afterward, Khosa couldn't walk or talk. He began vomiting.
   A few hours later, he was dead.

   A postmortem described the cause of death as "blunt force head injury."