“I ordered him not to come close. I told him if he does I’ll shoot him, but he continued advancing towards me.” 

National Freedom Party councillor Mzonjani Zulu was defending himself when he shot dead an IFP supporter outside a court, the Durban Regional Court heard.

Testifying in his bail application, Zulu said a man was carrying an assegai and holding it the way people did in faction fights.

Zulu is accused of killing Siya Dlamini in October outside the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court.

Two shots were fired at Dlamini in full view of police and bystanders. This happened after the appearance of four men in connection with the shooting of an Inkatha Freedom Party supporter.

Zulu, responding to questions from his lawyer, said he was talking to a police officer when he saw three people approaching him. One of the men grabbed his jacket after asking him what he was saying to the police officer about the assegai.

“I tried to pull myself out of his grip by moving backwards,” Zulu said.

The officer tried to stop the man, but moved towards Zulu. Zulu said he tried to move back and run away, but the man continued advancing.

“It was then when I took my firearm out of the holster, but at first it got stuck. I eventually managed to pull out the firearm and pointed it at him.

“I ordered him not to come close. I told him if he does I’ll shoot him, but he continued advancing towards me.”  Zulu said he continued to retreat until he ran out of space as there was a car behind him.

“After he noticed I could no longer move backwards, he advanced towards me. Then I fired a warning shot directed at his lower part of his body. “He continued to come at me in a forceful manner, wanting to strike me. Then I shot him in the head.”  Zulu said as he was being put into a police van, he heard someone warning him, and jumped to avoid being stabbed with an assegai.

Zulu asked the court to grant him bail as he was taking care of his unemployed wife, five children, paying off a bond and running a taxi business.

He told the court he intended to plead not guilty.

During cross-examination prosecutor Blackie Swart told the court Zulu had asked a police officer to take the assegai away from Dlamini.

“He [the police officer] looked around and saw a man leaning on the spear standing with two other people.

“He told you he would not arrest the man because he wasn’t posing a threat to you,” Swart said.

Zulu denied this, saying SABC news video footage would reveal what really happened.

Swart said three witnesses, including a police officer, said Dlamini had not provoked Zulu. He said the police officer described Zulu as rude and emotional.

The bail application continues.