Spot where Witness D killers’ getaway car was found, a dumpsite for bodies, cars

Bodies, an abandoned Ferrari, and a money safe left behind by criminals.

These are some of the peculiar discoveries previously made at the notorious rubbish dumping site in Alexandra, where a vehicle linked to Witness D’s killing was found this week.

Residents living near the site said they were not surprised that the vehicle was found there, as they have become accustomed to waking up to illicit and sometimes gruesome findings left by criminals.

Club Street in Ext 10, which is riddled with potholes, cuts through low-cost houses and shacks built close to several dumping sites in the Joburg north township. The street leads to a cul de sac, where the Chevrolet Utility was dumped by Witness D’s killers on Friday night – hours after his murder in Brakpan.

The dumpsite leads to a thoroughfare towards the N3 highway, making it easy for criminals to escape.

Witness D, whose real name is Marius van der Merwe, testified at the Madlanga commission recently and implicated Ekurhuleni metro police officers in corruption and murder cover-ups.

A resident, who asked not to be named, said he first saw the bakkie on Saturday morning facing toward the dumping site. “It was around 5am. I thought that someone got stuck and decided to leave the car there. I also thought it belonged to one of my neighbours but I realised that his does not have a canopy.

“I didn’t pay much attention to it because people sometimes leave vehicles here and come back much later to collect them,” he said.

The vehicle was parked at the same spot on Saturday until Monday afternoon when police were alerted to it by residents. “The car’s registration plate was intact on Saturday morning when I noticed it but it was mysteriously removed by unknown people by Sunday morning,” he said.

He said when he came back from running errands on Monday afternoon, he wasn’t shocked when he found police forensic officers taking photos and gathering other evidence from the vehicle. “Some of the things they found were a radio that had been dislodged from the dashboard, a knife, an empty beer bottle, and a black and white jacket,” he said.

He said four years ago a luxury Ferrari was dumped by thieves at the dumpsite and later collected by police. “These kinds of discoveries are normal here.

“We once recovered a dead body, and in another incident a money safe was found. In winter workers who use the thoroughfare to get to the highway get mugged here.”

Ward councillor Albert Raphudu told Sowetan that recovering unknown vehicles was a norm in the area. “We’re not sure where these criminals are coming from... but people wake up to find cars on the street and do not know the owner.

“It is unfortunate that they found it [the bakkie] in Alex but it’s a general occurrence that we are facing. Even police know about it,” he said, adding that the Tsutsumane or East Bank areas in Alexandra were also favoured by thugs.

A CPF leader who asked not to be named said: “If it’s not a car being dumped there, then it is a body.”

On Monday, national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola said they believed the bakkie was the same vehicle seen outside Van Der Merwe’s house moments before he was shot in front of his wife and kids.

“According to a police preliminary investigation, the vehicle was abandoned on Saturday morning by two men, just hours after Van der Merwe was shot and killed,” he said.

Police have since taken a person of interest in for questioning regarding Van der Merwe’s killing.

Sowetan