Boko Haram: Killed Mamelodi man dubbed ‘most wanted’ by police

Police have identified the 35-year-old gruesomely killed on the N4 Pretoria highway on Tuesday as the “number one suspect” of so-called Mamelodi Boko Haram gang.

The group is accused of extortion, hijacking construction projects, demanding protection fees from business owners, intimidating and hijacking a municipal building.

Given Mnguni was gunned down and killed while driving his black Volkswagen Polo on the N4 highway near Donkerhoek on Tuesday morning.

“Preliminary investigations on the scene identified the deceased as 35-year-old Phillip Given Mnguni. The task team established to investigate gang activities in Mamelodi had already linked him to several cases linked to Boko Haram,” said police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili.

Muridili said on arrival at the scene, police were told by a witness that a black VW Polo was shot at by occupants of a silver-grey Mercedes Benz.

Mnguni’s car then veered off the road past a fence and into the bushes about 50m from the road.

His bullet-riddled body was found slumped in a ditch several metres away from his car, indicating that he had possibly tried to run away from his attackers.

Eyewitnesses told the police that the assailants then stopped their vehicle and pursued Mnguni’s vehicle on foot where they shot him several times.

“The driver of the Polo was declared dead on the scene, while the passenger was rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds,” Muridili said.

Muridili said the police were on the lookout for the silver Mercedes Benz that was allegedly used by the shooters.

No one has been arrested yet and the police are investigating a case of murder and attempted murder.

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Gauteng provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela, is said to have directed the police task team to continue with the profiling of the deceased and to ensure that investigations into all the crimes that he was accused of are completed.

“This particular deceased was the number one wanted suspect in our investigations into the Boko Haram activities that were happening in Mamelodi,” Mawela said.

Over the past two months, several people from Mamelodi, have been violently shot and killed in public view.

Some of the murdered have been linked to the gang while investigations were still underway to probe whether other deceased were linked to the gang.

On 29 August, two men were shot and killed outside Santorini club in A3 Mamelodi.

Fourteen days later on September 13, a 30-year-old man was shot and killed at the corner of Simon Vermooten and Waltloo streets, Silverton, where a luxury motor vehicle was found peppered with bullet holes.

On September 17 around 18:20, another 30-year-old man was shot and killed at a shopping complex in Mamelodi.

More than a week later, a 33-year-old man was shot and killed at Mamelodi Heights hostel and a second victim sustained gunshot wounds and was treated and discharged from a hospital.

It is believed that the hostel where the shooting took place was allegedly hijacked by the Boko Haram gang since early 2019, and this remains under police investigations.

On October 2, a 30-year-old man was shot and killed at Section K.

Like the preceding trend, a week later a 39-year-old man was shot and killed while a woman believed to be his girlfriend’s mother was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound after four suspects armed with pistols and rifles stormed their home in section G, Mamelodi.

Police said the woman was shot after refusing the armed men from entering her house.

Police urged anyone with information on the killings to call the SAPS Crime Stop Number 08600 10111.

Information received will be treated with confidentiality.

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