Vehicle tracking records and Witness D’s statement formed part of evidence used to implicate Ekurhuleni metro police and SAPS officers in the murder of Emmanuel Mbhense, the Madlanga commission has heard.
This was revealed on Thursday by Nomsa Masuku, from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), who is the lead investigator in Mbense’s murder case.
Masuku told the commission that after she learnt about the case and allegations that law enforcement were implicated she looked for SAPS vehicle records to find a specific SAPS car that was at Mbhense’s home the night he went missing after police paid him a visit.
“It helped me to track a few cars and I managed to find one [SAPS] car, and I was not disappointed because I knew that police officers don’t [normally] drive alone. I had to check where [which station] it belonged to. The car belonged to the Brakpan police station,” she said.
She also discovered that a SAPS BMW was driven by Alexander Frits, a SAPS reservist who was on duty on the day in question.
Masuku said after she obtained the records she got a call from a Hawks colleague who told her that she had someone who had witnessed police murdering an individual. She later met a person who is now known as Marius “Vlam” van der Merwe — Witness D as referred to at the Madlanga commission.
She said she couldn’t conclude her interview with Witness D as they felt they were being followed.
In September 2022, they met at the Ipid national office in Pretoria, and two months later they took Witness D to point out the scene.
She said after the reconstruction of the scene she took the matter to a senior public prosecutor in Nigel, but the prosecutor told them they could not rely only on a statement of someone who was also implicating himself.
The implicated EMPD officials are Julius Mkhwanazi, Adrian McKenzie, Bafana Twala, and Kesha-Lee Stals.
Etienne van der Walt is the EMPD informant who is also implicated in the murder of Mbhense.
Police have confirmed that investigations revealed that 12 people were at the scene of Mbhense’s murder. According to national police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe, four of the 12 individuals allegedly linked to Mbhense’s killing have since died.
Const Raymond Mzwakhe Khoza, 36, an EMPD officer, was shot dead at his Tsakane home in October 2023 after responding to a neighbour’s call for assistance.
Police informant Jaco Hanekom was killed at a filling station in March 2023.
Before he was murdered in December, Witness D implicated Wiandre Pretorius in Mbhense’s death.
Police later named Pretorius as a person of interest in that killing. Pretorius died by suicide over the weekend, days after surviving an apparent attack in which his vehicle was riddled with bullets.
The commission’s hearings continue.
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