Mpumalanga’s new task team on political assassinations will take over and revive investigations into two high-profile murders dating back 14 years.
The revival of the assassination cases of former City of Mbombela Speaker Jimmy Mohlala and former Mpumalanga department of culture, sport and recreation spokesperson Sammy Mpatlanyane follows the team’s success in swiftly arresting suspects allegedly involved in the killing of an ANC councillor in Mkhondo Local Municipality, Piet Retief.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala (not related to Jimmy) said that the two cases were closed as inquests because the sole witnesses died.
A task team that Police Minister Bheki Cele appointed in 2011 when he was national police commissioner failed to crack the two cases, and despite immense pressure from the SACP, refused to release its report and findings.
“The current team will attend to these two cases,” Mohlala said.
When asked why the police were swift in arresting suspects for the January 13 murder of Mkhondo councillor, Sibonelo Mthembu (36), and his friends – Sizwe Mbingo (40) and Sandile Khumalo (51) – Mohlala responded: “A new approach was used to tackle this matter, hence, the swift arrest.”
No one has, however, been arrested for the assassination of another ANC councillor, Muzi Manyathi (41), in November last year.
Mohlala was fatally shot at his home in KaNyamazane on January 5 2009. He was a whistleblower on corruption relating to tenders awarded in the construction of the R1.2 billion Mbombela soccer world cup stadium.
Mpatlanyane was killed at his home in Stonehenge, Mbombela, on January 8 2010. Details about the motive for his death are sketchy, but it is alleged that he had refused to sign off an irregular multi-million rand payment and his signature was forged while he was in Germany. Mpatlanyane was shot when he returned from the trip.
In both cases, the police arrested the wrong suspects who were later released.
For Mohlala’s assassination, the police arrested two policemen – Dumisani Stanley Mhlanga (34) and Musa Finish Mkhabela (31) – as well as a cleaner at Rob Ferreira Hospital, Jenny Mabika (58), her son, Sakhile (31), and Moses Mahungela (33) late in 2010.
Evidence revealed that the police rushed into arresting the suspects without doing any investigation. They had only received an affidavit from Mabika’s other son, Evans, implicating the five suspects and it turned out that Evans had a fallout with the family and had framed his brother before for car theft.
Senior managers within Mpumalanga police also warned against the suspension without pay of the two officers before evidence, such as ballistic tests, had been gathered.
The case was withdrawn by the Nelspruit Magistrates’ Court in 2012 due to insufficient evidence. Mhlanga died before the case was concluded while Mkhabela was reinstated in his job.
The police arrested a Tanzanian, Omary Issa (29), and a Mozambican, Nito Mashava (28), for Mpatlanyane’s murder.
However, Mashava, who was the main witness was declared unfit to stand trial and died at a psychiatric institution.
When Mohlala and Mpatlanyane died, it was alleged that a Mozambican national known as Josh was hired by a senior politician to kill them and other politicians and civil servants before.
