KZN municipal chief whip’s murder: SAPS and AfriForum fire verbal shots

The SAPS task team tasked with investigating political killings will not be dictated to about how it conducts investigations or does its work.

This is the message from national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe in response to a statement by AfriForum that slams the police’s handling of the investigation into the murder of Nhlalayenza Ndlovu, the then chief whip of uMngeni Municipality in KZN.

Ndlovu was gunned down at his home near Mpophomeni in front of his wife and children in December, sustaining multiple bullet wounds.

AfriForum statement

In a damning statement released by the organisation, it claims that its Private Prosecution Unit secured ‘potentially critical evidence’ that could solve the investigation into the politically-motivated assassination of the deceased DA councillor.

However, AfriForum claims that SAPS Crime Intelligence head Major General Dumisani Khumalo has shut down all communication with the unit, ‘despite its eagerness to assist the police’.

“This illegitimate embargo has called into question the police’s willingness to investigate political murders involving opposition party members, where victims are not aligned with the governing party or its political bedfellows,” the statement reads.

It adds that the unit, led by Advocate Gerrie Nel and a team of specialised investigators, conducted extensive consultations since January and followed up on ‘numerous promising leads’ in the uMngeni area. “At a meeting with Khumalo on March 13, Nel and his team expressed their willingness to work with the police. Regrettably, Khumalo has since terminated all communication with the unit and refuses to update Ndlovu’s widow and family on the investigation’s progress, despite the police’s obligation to do so.”

According to the statement, Nel sent a letter to Khumalo on March 19, to voice his dissatisfaction. Nel summarised the nature of the above meeting as follows: “Your seeming unwillingness to foster a relationship of co-operation to solve this callous assassination is disappointing […] Despite our indicating that we may be able to assist in the investigation because we have access to information from persons who distrust the police themselves, you have shown no interest. It became clear that you have no intention to deviate from the chosen ‘investigation plan’. The meeting fostered the inference that the SAPS are more concerned with controlling investigations and a narrative than solving this particular murder.”

SAPS hits back

In response, Mathe told Caxton Local Media that the task team is ‘always willing and always ready’ to meet with victims’ families to provide feedback on cases ‘without the presence of third parties’.

She said several of the unit’s successes since 2018 ‘illustrates the commitment and dedication that the team has in investigating and putting perpetrators of politically relating killings behind bars’. These successes include the arrest of 175 hitmen, she said, adding that 110 are still on trial.

Mathe said the task team is probing two cases involving DA members:

The first is a murder and attempted murder investigation involving DA councillor Michael Buthelezi and his family. Buthelezi was injured and his wife and three children died when their house was set alight in October. “The investigation in this case was completed and the councillor himself was arrested, charged and bail was denied,” said Mathe.

The second probe is into the killing of Ndlovu. Mathe says the investigation is continuing. “Further information cannot be divulged to anyone, including AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, until the investigation is finalised and the perpetrators are brought to book.”

Induna sought

The statement by AfriForum also mentions that on April 11, SAPS made a public appeal for the tracing of an induna in the Mpophomeni area in connection with murder and attempted murder in Impendle, KZN.

According to the statement, the appeal follows the induna’s failure to appear in the Howick Magistrate’s Court.

AfriForum says the induna faces charges of theft of transformers owned by the uMngeni Municipality, but alleges that the SAPS did not reveal that the induna ‘had indeed been arrested by the SAPS weeks earlier, but that the state had not opposed his release on bail’. AfriForum says that if Khumalo had ‘agreed to co-operate with the Private Prosecution Unit’, the induna ‘would have faced meaningful scrutiny on charges related to Ndlovu’s murder’.

“The unit has now copied General Fannie Masemola, the national police commissioner, in correspondence to Khumalo. Unsurprisingly, there has been no response from the SAPS commissioner. It also seems that Khumalo has support for his decision not to keep the victim’s family informed of the investigation and to selectively decide which information and/or evidence they will collate in the docket,” the statement adds.