Veteran actor, Patrick Shai's, 7de Laan was shot 11 times and transported to Tshepo Themba Hospital after surviving a shooting incident during a community protest in Dobsonville, Soweto.
It is reported by Sowetan that the Dobsonville area has been without electricity since Friday, which has issued a fierce reaction from community members who have staged a demonstration. Soweto has seen multiple protests lately over electricity blackouts following stories that it owed the power utility more than R18 billion in unpaid electricity bills.
Just like most protests, there's compelled to be some chaos and violence - and right to form - things indeed did turn ugly.
One of the protesters was Patrick Shai. After going about his regular errands in the morning, the actor noticed that the protest in his area was still on. Little did he know that in an attempt to calm the waters down, he could have possibly lost his life.
“I only realized that there was trouble when they pulled out the guns from the cars. I raised my hands and begged them not to shoot, but they kept advancing. Instead of engaging me, they fired. I turned around and started running, and I got hit several times," he says.
Although the actor wasn't affected by the electricity cuts, he saw it fit to join in with the hopes of alleviating the violence that he had witnessed on the scene, especially from the police.
Patrick continued to state the following to the publication: “South Africa should not find justification for police brutality. We saw it with Andries Tatane. It was unwarranted. It cannot be that South Africa responds to its citizens with such violence.''
Sowetan reported that the actor sustained injuries on his thigh, neck, arms, and back when he was running away from the police. It was also stated that Patrick will be doing more x-rays, as a means of identifying any more possible damages in his body.
