Johannesburg, Aug 1 (DPA) A police guard committed suicide Saturday at the Johannesburg residence of former South African president Nelson Mandela, police said.
The sergeant shot himself in front of his colleagues at the guard house at the entrance to Mandela’s home in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton.
He had been part of the unit from the police’s VIP protection department assigned to the 91-year-old anti-apartheid icon.
“The guard house is not part of the perimeter surrounding the former president’s house but is one of the first lines of security upon entrance,” police spokesman Captain Dennis Adriao was quoted as saying in a report by the Sapa news agency.
Adriao said the guard’s colleagues “are in shock” and that it was not clear why he had shot himself as “he never gave any indication.”
