Ballistic evidence ties Swart’s murder weapons to multiple high-profile killings

SAPS ballistic evidence has linked the firearms used in the 2024 murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart to 10 high-profile cases of murder and attempted murder.

The murders include that of Oupa ‘DJ Sumbody’ Sefoka and his two bodyguards, Sibusiso Mokoena and Sandile Myeza, Hector ‘DJ Vintos’ Buthelezi and Don Tindleni.

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Swart was shot multiple times and killed outside his workplace in Vereeniging in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity. Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that within three hours after Swart’s murder, the Gauteng Organised Crime Unit arrested three suspects, Michael Pule Tau, Musa Kekana, and Tiego Floyd Mabusela, and seized four firearms, including an AK-47.

Although the police conducted ballistic tests on the firearms, they were only linked to other high-profile cases before the SAPS Political Killings Task Team took them for a second opinion on ballistic testing. The task team was enlisted to help the Gauteng unit with investigations in Swart’s murder case in December 2024, the same month in which the fourth suspect, Katiso Molefe, was arrested, and later released on bail.

“Our investigations have now brought us to this point. We are linking the AK-47, as well as the three pistols that were found in the Armand Swart case, to the killing of DJ Vintos, the killing of DJ Sumbody and his bodyguards, and to Don Tindleni’s murder.”

DJ Vintos was shot and killed in March 2022 outside a nightclub in Orlando East. DJ Sumbody was killed in a hail of bullets alongside his two bodyguards in November 2022 in Woodmead. A few months later, Tindleni was shot and killed in March 2023 on the N1 highway near the A17 off-ramp.

Mathe said the police were not only relying on the ballistics report, but they also have overwhelming evidence that implicated the suspects in these cases.

Molefe, Tau, Kekana, and Mabusela were initially facing charges for the murder of Swart, but on July 22, they appeared in the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court and were charged with the murder of DJ Sumbody and his two bodyduards. Mathe revealed that the four suspects will also be charged in connection with DJ Vintos’ murder, while the three alleged hitmen, Tau, Kekana and Mabusela, will be charged for Tindleni’s murder. Molefe, the alleged mastermind behind DJ Sumbody’s murder, has not yet been linked to Tindleni’s case, as investigations to determine the mastermind are still ongoing.

Molefe will appear in court again on August 6 for his bail application. Tau, Kekana, and Mabusela chose not to apply for bail. All four are scheduled to return to court on September 11. Mathe revealed that the magistrate wants to centralise all the cases. “We are told that they are going to be centralised and be heard in one court.”

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