Cape Town - A student at the Military Academy in Saldanha stabbed a prospective air force pilot to death at the weekend and then hanged himself in police cells.
The runup to the weekend's events apparently began about two weeks ago when an army student was stabbed with a broken bottle during an argument at a shebeen near the academy.
He almost lost his eye in the stabbing and was treated for several days in 2 Military Hospital in Cape Town before being discharged last week.
On Saturday night he apparently went to look for the people who'd stabbed him with the bottle when he ran into the air force student in a shebeen nearby.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones said on Monday Ayanda Maliti, 22, died about 02:15 on Sunday after an argument at a shebeen in the White City suburb of Saldanha
''The deceased and another man had an argument. They went outside and the other man stabbed Maliti four times in the chest with a knife.
Blanket of total secrecy
''Police members later arrested Everton Masango, 21, in Vredenburg in connection with the murder. They locked him up in the police cells there. Officers found him dead at 19:00.''
Jones said Masango was being detained alone in a cell and when police officers did a routine inspection half an hour earlier, he'd still been alive.
''When they went to give him food later, they found him. Apparently he'd used a piece of his tracksuit jacket to hang himself from the grid in front of the ventilation opening,'' Jones said.
It appears no one could explain the weekend's suicide since the air force student hadn't been near the shebeen where the first stabbing took place.
Fellow students said a blanket of total secrecy had been thrown over the two events. The academy's management apparently did nothing after the first event. By Monday afternoon management had still not spoken to students about the weekend's events.
Some of the students told Beeld on Monday the incident was typical of the discipline that was getting worse by the day at the institution.
Allegations of racism, violence at academy
Allegations of tension, racial disharmony and discrimination at the academy were made more than a year ago. The defence department launched an investigation about a year ago into allegations of racism and violence at the institution.
The findings of that investigation have not yet been made known. Staff members said the situation hadn't improved in the slightest since the two investigations; instead it had worsened.
Defence force spokesperson Major Vivian Petrus said on Monday afternoon in reaction to the suicide the department of defence deplored the events.
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota said without prejudging the results of the police investigation that members of the defence force were expected to behave irreproachably as role models for the country's youth.