Constable Kuhle Mathetha had graduated just over a month before he died in a hail of bullets at the Ngcobo police station. Despite mourning his murder‚ his father is able to spare a thought for his killers' parents.

A funeral service for Mathetha‚ 27‚ was held at his Ncorha home village in Cofimvaba on Saturday.

His grieving father‚ Bulelani Mathetha‚ who is a retired school principal‚ said he has accepted the fact that his son was gone forever.

He would remember his son as a handsome and diligent young man.

Mathetha senior also spared a thought for the parents of the suspects who were killed in a subsequent shootout with law enforcement officers‚ the Daily Dispatch newspaper reported.

"Like myself‚ I have lost a child‚ not a policeman‚ those parents have lost children‚ not criminals.

"The parents did not send their children to commit the crime. Now the parents have a task of burying the children who died in this manner. It will haunt those parents for the rest of their lives‚ that their sons killed policemen.

"Now that I have accepted the death of my son‚ my heart goes to those parents."

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