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How is talking helping those people who lost their relatives? We should not talk but refer these matters to law enforcement agencies. The country has formidable institutions with the capacity to deal with these matters. – David Mabuza

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Former deputy president, David Mabuza, has been challenged to keep his promise to name assassinators of a whistleblower.

The widow of former Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation spokesperson, Sammy Mpatlanyane, has told The People’s Eye podcast that Mabuza, who was Mpumalanga premier, said he knew those behind the so-called political or January killings.

WATCH: DD Mabuza must keep his promise to reveal the killers of my husband (Pinky Mpatlanyane)

Mpatlanyane was fatally shot on January 10 at his second-floor bedroom in Stonehenge, Mbombela. The assassins are yet to be found 15 years later.

His signature on documents to authorise the payment of undisclosed millions of rands in the fan parks established around the City of Mbombela for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was allegedly forged before he was shot.

Mpatlanyane’s assassination followed that of former City of Mbombela speaker, Jimmy Mohlala, in 2009. Like Mpatlanyane, Mohlala was a whistleblower caught up in the corruption involving the R1.2 billion Mbombela stadium.

He was shot at his home in KaNyamazane on January 5 2009, and his assassins have not been found in the last 16 years.

“The former deputy president, Mr David Mabuza, in one of his press conferences said he said he knows who is in charge of the killings in Mpumalanga,” Pinky, Mpatlanyane’s widow said.

“He knows who killed Sammy and Jimmy. He did his own investigation because people are accusing him. He knows and he will tell one day. What is stopping the investigators from going to Mabuza and get the information. How long must we wait? When is this day coming?”

Mabuza declined an opportunity given to him to respond on The People’s Eye podcast.

“No. I will not participate,” Mabuza said.

“How is talking helping those people who lost their relatives? We should not talk but refer these matters to law enforcement agencies. The country has formidable institutions with the capacity to deal with these matters,” he said.

Pinky worked in Mabuza’s office as protocol officer. She said she had been working in the Office of the Premier since the days of Mathews Phosa in 1994.

“When Mabuza came (as premier), we had no bad blood. When Sammy passed on, there was no beef between him and Mabuza,” Pinky said.

However, when Mabuza collapsed during an event in Mkhuhlu in September 2015, Pinky was immediately removed as protocol officer as she was suspected of having poisoned Mabuza. Mabuza was treated in Russia for two months.

Pinky said that she had suffered abuse and torture in the hands of the police after her husband’s death. The police, she said, were trying to implicate her in every turn.

There were also incidents where she was intimidated. Cars had accosted her when driving and tried bullying her off the road. Other people had come into her house masquerading as workers from water utility, Silulumanzi, to switch off her water supply on a Friday night even when her water bill was not in arrears.

She also had her garage broken into and her car vandalised.

Pinky said that she could not understand the reasons police arrested foreigners for her husband’s killing. They arrested Mozambican Nito Mashava (28) and Tanzanian national Omary Issa (29) in connection with Sammy’s killing in 2011. However, Mashava who police said was their key witness, was sent for psychiatric evaluation and later died – allegedly due to poisoning.

“He was in their care. Why did he die in their care. My biggest question that I put to everyone is - that Nito guy – how did he get hold of the gun? I asked the police – may I see the owner of the gun in the police. He needs to explain how he lost his gun to be in Nito’s hands,” Pinky said.

She also raised a concern that a police officer who was close to her husband’s and Mohlala’s investigation ended up being employed in the Office of the Premier. Another concern she said she had was that Mpatlanyane’s replacement in the department was a police officer from whose unit the gun that shot her husband was linked.