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·      Suspended Mpumalanga police commissioner exposes how wrong suspects were arrested as cover-up ·      A junior official was given wrong information during bail application ·      Police relied on one affidavit from a dodgy witness who implicated his 59-year-old mother and brother

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Outgoing Mpumalanga police commissioner, Lt General Daphney Manamela, has confirmed police’s dirty hands in the arrest of wrong suspects for the murder of former City of Mbombela speaker, Jimmy Mohlala.

Mohlala was assassinated on January 4 2009 at a point when he was due to report corruption charges relating to tender irregularities in the construction of the R1.2 billion Mbombela 2010 World Cup stadium.

Manamela said, during a tell-it-all media conference on April 19, that investigating officer Colonel Alfred Moloko, “stalled the case arranging for wrong suspects to be arrested.”

She said that when the five suspects appeared before the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court to apply for bail, Moloko assigned a junior official whom he misled. As a result, the official told the court that the suspects’ description was different from those who should have been arrested.

“Col Moloko deliberately misled him and the court so that the case [could] be withdrawn,” Manamela said.

The police were under pressure from all angles to find Mohlala’s assassins as this was one of the high-profile political killings’ cases in the country and Mpumalanga, which was notorious for the assassination of corruption-busting politicians and civil servants.   

They then claimed that they had made a breakthrough in October 2010 when they announced that a key witness had made a confession that led to the arrest of two police officers – Stanley Mhlanga and Finish Mkhabela who were members of the Nelspruit Flying Squad – and three civilians.

DODGY KEY WITNESS

The twist in the story was that the key witness, Evans Mabika, had - in his affidavit - implicated his mother, Jenny (59 years old at that time), his brother, Sakhile, and a neighbour Moses Mahungela.

Mabika’s statement alleged they were all at home in Matsulu, 40 km outside Mbombela, when he overheard them plotting how they were going to kill Mohlala. Mabika said that the quintet performed muthi rituals before the four males drove in a police-owned bakkie to KaNyamazane township to shoot Mohlala at his house.

There were gaps in the circumstances relating to the arrest of these suspects that police could not explain and evaded answering questions about.

Mabika deposed his affidavit a year and a half after he allegedly witnessed the suspects hatching the plot to assassinate Mohlala. The police appear not to have conducted any thorough investigation as they pounced on the suspects within three days after Mabika gave them his statement.

In May 2009, three months after Mohlala was shot, Mabika opted to frame his brother, Sakhile, for the theft of his girlfriend’s car rather than report the murder that had happened just a few months earlier. Mabika paid Sakhile’s R1 000 bail after he spent a weekend in police cells and withdrew the charges.

When interviewed in 2011, Sakhile said that his brother wanted the bail money back and he refused to give him.  The motive for lying about the theft, Sakhile said, was his revenge about family feuds they had.

Jenny was a cleaner at Rob Ferreira Hospital who had no interest in politics nor knew who Mohlala was when they were arrested.

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

The court withdrew the charges against all these suspects in 2012 due to insufficient evidence. Since then, police failed to arrest any other suspect – proving that the arrest was a decoy and a cover-up.

Another discrepancy appeared when Mhlanga and Mkhabela were charged internally for misconduct.

At that time, Major General Thembi Hadebe, then a deputy commissioner for support services, who is now a Lt General and commissioner of police in Limpopo, warned then Mpumalanga commissioner General Thulani Ntobela that there was insufficient evidence to charge the two officers.

“The statements (of witnesses) were perused, and it was found that the information or evidence to prove the case as well as decide on the possible suspension of these members. This office requests that the departmental trial for these members be delayed to collect more evidence, for example, ballistic results and that alternative placement of these members be considered,” Hadebe.

However, Ntobela went ahead with suspension and disciplinary process.

Furthermore, the evidence presented before the disciplinary committee proved that the vehicle Mkhabela was authorized to use from January 2 to 6 to investigate cases in Pienaar near KaNyamazane did not pass at the street where Mohlala’s house was situated.

According to the automobile vehicle location, the vehicle also did not stop at KaNyamazane.

Mkhabela was eventually fired. He appealed and was reinstated. Mhlanga died due to stress-related illnesses during the disciplinary hearing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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