Censorbugbear reports...

Captain Petrus Setlaba, 49, of Fochville, tortured by cops, Jan. 21 2010

Klerksdorp - The gratitude shown by police for his lengthy years in service were, amongst others, electrical shocks administered to his naked body until he wet himself, claimed captain Petrus Setlaba, 49, a police captain from Wolmaransstad in North West writes Beeld journalist Nicolette van der Walt.

"I  worked for the police for 26 years. It was my career and this is how they repay me," said an emotional Setlaba, who was shift commander in the unit for visible policing.  He was recovering in a private hospital in Klerksdorp under police guard and was, amongst others, being treated for diabetes. He was also seeing a psychologist. This followed his arrest on January 21 by members of Klerksdorp's unit against organised crime at his home in Fochville, where he lives with his wife Maureen.

'Cleared everything away'
He was cuffed and taken away after they apparently cleared out his "whole house, even the meat in the fridge, to look for evidence". He was suspected of involvement in robberies in North West but denied these allegations. "Some of the police (there were apparently nine members) who came to fetch me in the morning from my house, still called me captain. That other man who became captain so quickly, said I was no longer a captain, 'this thing is only a criminal'."

• They apparently also refused that Setlaba get his injection for diabetes and wouldn't let him eat or even contact his lawyer.

But what upset him most was the humiliation and the pain that he suffered while being questioned in the organised crime unit's office between Klerksdorp and Orkney. "I was first only punched in the stomach and then slapped in the face. They said: Here you will kak (suffer). "I was then tied to a chair with that thick Sellotape, two black bags were pulled over my head and a cap as well as a yellow plastic rope were placed around my neck. Wires were attached to me.
They kept asking me where the money was. My arms, ankles, knees and genitals were shocked. They pulled down my pants while there were women present and I wet myself from the pain. I screamed and screamed but it didn't help."

His legal representative, Kobus Burger, said when he went to see Setlaba at about 15:00, he was very tired, shocked and barely able to walk.

Suspended
Setlaba was examined by a district surgeon as well as a private physician. Photographs showed clear burns across his body."My client was traumatised and gets nightmares. He has laid charges against the police members," said Burger. A preliminary psychological report confirmed that he had sustained acute post-traumatic stress. Setlaba was suspended from the police on January 22 pending the investigation."The allegations are being investigated," said police superintendent Lesego Metsi.  Beeld http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/21b9bc69ca4e43a5a7ab6eee0344914e/01-02-2010-08-45/Captain_claims_cops_tortured_him

Man dies after 'police assault'

Also, an unnamed 49-year-old Western Cape man has died on Feb 1 2010 after he was allegedly assaulted by a police officer, the Independent Complaints Directorate says. Man dies after 'police assault'

Ermelo police sergant kills himself in doctor’s sugery with service pistol

2010-02-01 12:54 A police sergeant of Ermelo has shot himself dead with his service pistol in a local doctor’s surgery. Sergeant Jaco Kotze (34),’s wife Janine works as personal assistant for Dr Anton Kraftt in Ennis Street, Ermelo. Kotze is the commander for policing-sector 3, the Ermelo business district, and showed up at around 10am at the surgery. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/4e16d514e11843c98eb06991e2c59b35/01-02-2010-12-54/%E2%80%98Dis_mos_wat_julle_wil_h%C3%AA%E2%80%99

2010_1_30 Bossie Bezuidenhout, 45, shot dead at home, Shandon Estates, Nelspruit on Saturday

Only minutes after five-year-old Lauren Bezuidenhout had said her little bedtime-prayer: ‘Thank you dear Jesus for our nice new home and that we are so happy’, her unarmed dad Bossie, 45, was shot dead by armed attackers on the ground-floor of their new, high-security Nelspruit home, reports Buks Viljoen of Beeld newspaper.

Mr Bezuidenhout, wife Karen 39, and their children Lauren and Jarrod, 11, had just had milk-shakes in the kitchen at 8.30pm together before going to bed, while grandmom Tina, 65, was busy elsewhere in the new Shandon Estates double-storey dream-home they had just moved into.

A family friend, Mrs Karin Visagie, said Mr Bezuidenhout had gone downstairs while the children were being put to bed. Loud shouting and a shot were heard, and it was found that a bullet fired into his neck had killed the father of two, probably by ‘burglars’,  she said.

His widow turns 40 years old this Wednesday and her husband was planning to surprise her with a romantic weekend, said Mrs Visagie.

Her husband Ronnie had been Bossie Bezuidenhout friend of 35 years. Bossie was a graduate of the Afrikaans Rob Ferreira High School in nearby White River and it had always been his lifelong dream to return to Nelspruit. He had purchased a business from Mr Visagie a year ago.

Mr Bezuidenhout had moved from Silver Lakes,  Pretoria to Nelspruit in May 2009, and his family had followed him in November after the schools closed. They moved into their ‘dream-home’ on Saturday.

Picture left: the Bezuidenhout family in happier times…

Police detective-superintendent Supt. Gerrie Agenbag of the Nelspruit police said they suspect that Mr Bezuidenhout was shot dead with a revolver – a bullet-point was found at the murder scene, but there were no spent cartridges on the scene. “From traces we found outside the house it looks as if there may have been two or three attackers,’ he said. Anyone with more information may contact him at telephone 013 759 1108 bel.

The high-security Shandon Estates Company property has had a number of armed attacks over the past two months, Beeld reports. Mr Charles Venter, an ex-mayor and neighbour of the Bezuidenhouts, also was attacked and badly assaulted late last year. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/2cbe89c25201492891ce371cc911e1d4/01-02-2010-12-55/‘Julle_bliksems’__toe_word_pa_van_2_doodgeskiet

“Without private security firms and our own defences, we would all be victims,’  warns farmers’ union

 Feb 1 2010 - Two reports this week revealed the chasm between what the SA Police Service finds important: while one in every three operational policemen – 50,000 in all - have been invited to a three-day jamboree to celebrate National Police Day in Bloemfontein at a cost of around R40-million, a farmer from North West – Mr. Wilhelm Rochér – spent a weekend in jail for defending himself against stock thieves who he had caught red-handed. Mr. Rochér is now out on bail.

The Transvaal Agricultural union says in a media statement  that ‘the fact that the police were only too ready to throw Afrikaner farmer Wilhelm Rochér into a cell after he had caught a livestock-thief, inspires little confidence in a system which continues to lose its focus. Before an investigation has even begun, Mr. Rochér is deemed guilty and is thus marked for incarceration.”

They also point out that South Africa is replete with reports of mob justice being applied in townships where perceived criminals are assaulted and even murdered by groups, however ‘we rarely hear of any arrests after these incidents…”

The TLU writes: “Mr. Rochér was arrested for murder in circumstances where he was the victim, not a criminal. “The fact that farmers must themselves pursue stock thieves says everything about the state of policing in South Africa. In any other self-respecting country, the thieves would have been apprehended by a police force charged with doing just that. In South Africa, a farmer finds himself facing possible imprisonment for taking over the duties of the state in order to defend himself and to regain possession of his own property…”

Ticket sales to WC2010 lagging due to perceptions about high crime levels

The TLU also points out that one of the main reasons why overseas ticket sales for the FIFA World Cup are lagging behind expectations is South African crime. And crime can only flourish if the country’s law and order apparatus does not function. Latest figures show South African ticket sales accounting for 79% of the total, with just over 50 000 tickets sold in the US, 41 000 in Germany and 15 000 in Australia. South Africa may face a serious setback regarding this event which is supposed to be a showcase. What will be revealed is the depth and breadth of South Africa’s crime scourge, despite assurances by Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa that R1,3 billion is budgeted to assure the safety of visitors to the FIFA Cup. .

“Thus policing and its concomitant functions of investigation towards ensuring conviction are so integral to South Africa’s future that the spotlight placed on the police is well deserved. Unfortunately, the SAPS does not live up to its challenges – not by a very large margin.

What happened to that ‘agreement’ between farmers and the SAPS to set up a Special Task Team ?

In August last year, an agreement was concluded between farmers and the police that a special Task Team would be appointed to fully investigate stock theft in the Swartruggens area, where Mr. Rochér farms. This investigation never happened.

Banana-republic police badgering:

“Daily incidents of poor police behaviour are reported in various media. The TV programme Carte Blanche revealed last week in vivid detail how the “blue light” police cars force people off the road. A woman motorist and her husband were taken to a local station, beaten up and harassed because they didn’t move out of the way quickly enough. Other reports have come to light of this type of banana-republic badgering.

3,000 lost SAPS firearms:

“Between 2001 and 2009, the number of firearms lost by SAPS members or stolen from them increased by 166%. The SAPS has now ordered 4,000 new Beretta pistols at a cost of R16 million to replace the 3 000 odd that have been lost or stolen, and the SAPS is “unwittingly fuelling the illegal arms trade” declared the Democratic Alliance. Four thousand new pistols will be in circulation because nobody can find the 3,000 that have disappeared.

On 15 September 2009, Minister of Police Mthethwa announced that legislation empowering police to respond more forcefully to dangerous criminals was close to finalisation. But if police are not around to enforce legislation, and the public is compelled to self defend, why would the public’s actions be any less justifiable than a policeman’s in the same situation?

Only 0.25-million of the 2.03-million recorded crimes led to convictions last year… 668 police dockets ‘lost’ or ‘stolen’…

“South Africa’s crime conviction rate is one of the lowest in the world. In the 2007/2008 year, the number of crimes committed was 2.03 million. Of these, only 0.25- million resulted in convictions. One of the reasons – and there are many – could be the loss and theft of police dockets. From 2002/4 to 2008/9, the number of case dockets lost or stolen increased from the official figures of 343 to 668. The real figure is probably much higher.

Skills deficit:

There is a huge skills deficit. The June 2008 Business Day reported that 60% of evidence gathered at crime scenes was unusable, due to poor collection which ruined the samples. The report quoted figures from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) which found that of the 42 000 samples sent to the biology unit of the SAPS forensic laboratory, 25 200 were not analysed. The ISS report found that forensic field workers were insufficiently trained. It was estimated that only about 10% of the 42 000 cases would eventually be analysed. (SA Institute of Race Relations Fast Facts January 2010)

Crime statistics

Official SAPS statistics  are dodgy at best, the TLU warns.

“Reports are myriad of the SAPS doctoring crime figures to make the picture less alarming and for other more nefarious reasons. Recently, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) found that crime statistics at Mountain Rise police station in Pietermaritzburg were manipulated. (Mail & Guardian Jan 29, 2010)

Bonuses of R500,000 to Mountain Rise police station cops for tampered crime-statistics…

• “As a result of the tampering Mountain Rise was the top station in Kwa Zulu Natal last year, and station officials received bonuses totaling R500 000 as a reward. Head of the station Hariram Badul has been arrested with three other policemen from the station for allegedly defrauding the state of R1million worth of equipment, including computers which were recovered during a police raid. Also recovered were 147 dockets, six case book registers and three statistic registers. Many crimes were not registered on the case administration system. A whistle blower who reported this was suspended without pay. Badul had told his staff that only cases where the culprits were “easily obtainable” were to be investigated. The rest of the dockets were locked in a room. These unprocessed dockets were about to be burnt when the whilstle blower approached the courts. He has since been reinstated.

Illegal firearms, ammo possession rose by 50%

Crimes that are heavily dependent on police action for detection have increased remarkably – illegal possession of firearms and ammunition has increased by nearly 50% from 1994 to 2008, drug related crime by about 135% and driving under the influence by more than 110%. (SA Institute of Race Relations October 2009) This reveals negligence and incompetence within the SAPS which appears to be increasing.

Police tells robbery-victim: ‘find a private detective…’

A Pretoria man who was attacked and shot during a botched robbery was told by a station commissioner to “find a private detective to look into the case”. He was visited by a police officer in hospital after the incident and asked to pay R10 000 for the private investigator, and the man is now suing the SAPS.

A woman died on the bathroom floor of the Eldorado Park police station after three police officers took her from her home for questioning after she had witnessed a crime. (The Star January 6, 2010) The woman, a thyroid sufferer, was held against her will and died because of complications setting in because of lack of a doctor’s care. Deaths in police custody have declined from 334 in 2003 to 302 in 2007/8, but these are police figures and are in doubt.

“The SAPS is an integral arm of the government, but it is unable to function properly and this affects all walks of South African life. From farms to the cities, the crime figures are not abating.

• “ The private security industry flourishes, and without this group and our own defences, we would be all victims, ” the TLU statement concludes.
• http://www.tlu.co.za

Agri-SA still denies the Boer-Genocide… while admitting that the rural security system is a dismal failure

Feb 1 2010 - The Dutch liberal daily Trouw – which was launched as an underground newspaper fighting against the WWII Nazi occupation of The Netherlands – wrote an amazing article today. Its journalist Gineke Mons actually reported the fact that ‘hundreds of young black males torture to death about 100 white farmers a year in South Africa.’  For their digital version, click to page 3:

Their article, headlined “Afrikaner Boers left in the lurch’. describes that two farmers a week are murdered on average and that the Agri-SA farmers’ lobby has rung the alarm-bell, warning that the rural security plan – ( launched in 1999) -- doesn’t work.’

The Gineke Mons article in Trouw describes the trial in Senekal of Petrus Ndaba, 29 and comrade Pule Jacob Mpanyane, 22, suspected of last year’s murders of the elderly farm couple Koos and Retha van Zyl – shot dead with their own shotgun after he had tortured the couple on a meat-hook on January 5 2009. http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/wereld/article2976849.ece/Afrikaner_boeren_in_de_steek_gelaten_.html

(My background:) Van Zyl (63) and his wife  Retha (66), a much loved local teacher who had just retired, were ‘slaughtered like animals’ on their farm Poortjie in the Free State. Both were first attacked and cruelly mutilated with a meathook, and then shot dead with their own shotgun, said police. Netcare 911 spokesman Chris Botha described the scene at the time as “absolute carnage’ after paramedics arrived. It was the second farm attack in the Odendaalsrust district that week.

Ndaba was arrested while fleeing in their daughter Marietjie’s red Chevrolet Avea sedan with a stolen sheep. Sergeant Majang Mosupa of the Free State police said Mrs Van Zyl had apparently gone outside to turn on the electricity generator when she was attacked. It is suspected that the attacker, a former labourer who was fired for stealing from the couple only a day earlier, had apparently turned off the generator off to her outside. Mr Van Zyl, who was frail and very ill, was then attacked in the kitchen with a meathook which slashed open his neck and head, said Mosupa, while Mrs Van Zyl, who had also been attacked several times with the meathook, then was tied up and dragged through the homestead. The couple then both were shot in their chests with a shotgun.

Pictures: on the same day of the trial of Van Zyl couple’s murderers, a violent demonstration also took place in the Viljoenskroon area against the ANC regime’s so-named ‘poor service delívery,’ and an Afrikaner farm-wife called Theresa, picture far left, was cruelly attacked, tortured with a panga and raped. It’s amazing that she survived the ordeal. http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/01/farm-attacks-jan-27-2010.html and http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/01/leading-citizens-murdered-attacked-jan.html

Trouw writes: “White farm families and smallholders on the South African ‘platteland’ have been terrorised for years by violent attacks. Farmers union AgriSA, which represents about 90 percent of the 45,000 (?) commercial white farmers, estimates an average of 750 to 800 farm attacks a year during which about 100 people are murdered.

“Some Afrikaner groups refer to this as a ‘white genocide’ but Agri-SA does not want to go that far, claiming instead that farmers and smallholders are ‘soft targets,’ writes Trouw, quoting André Botha, who heads the organisation’s security department, as repeating the same old ANC-saw, namely that:  “Farmers live in remote areas and usually have guns, money and cars. Attackers know that it takes a long time on these rural farms before police arrives after an emergency call.’

Trouw quotes the University of Pretoria’s 2008 investigation of 37 convicted farm-murderers, noting that on average, each one of them had carried out an average of 105 violent crimes before they were even caught. And police statistics overall show that from all the reported crimes, only 12 percent ever end up in a conviction.

Trouw quotes Unisa-criminologist Dawie Swart, who says the detective investigations by the SAPS are ‘pathetic. Ever since the takeover by the ANC-government, inexperienced, untrained black people have been appointed in police post and a great deal of expertise, knowledge was lost in this process’.

Trouw also reports about the pre-1994 commando system, when the SAPS worked with local defence-force volunteers who knew the area well. However when the ANC gained hegemony, the commandos  cooperation with the SAPS were ended.

“To fill the vacuum, Agri-SA developed an alternative rural security system with the government,’ Trouw reports. “The rural areas were split into sector-policing areas and the police was supposed to be assisted by patrolling police-reservists in each sector. These police-reservists were civilians, often farmers, and were given  brief military training and given similar (arrest) authority to the SAPS.”

‘Too many cops not doing their jobs and not being punished for it…’

Botha says the sector-policing plan for rural areas, which was launched in1999, does not function well in many places. “There are too many police officers not doing their jobs, and who are never corrected for not doing their work. The rotten apples don’t get fired. This infects the entire policing system. Agri-SA has been trying to raise this issue with the Police Minister for the past two years but we get no reactions,’  said Botha.

“Farmers and smallholdings feel marginalised because there is no attention for their unsafe situation. And this while the commercial farmers keep the rural areas afloat financially. If they disappear, development in our rural areas will collapse. The commercial farmer is the key to a South Africa with a future, or a country which will glide into a country like Zimbabwe,’ warns Botha.

Trouw ‘s article ends with a quote from a black farmer and neighbour of the murdered Senekal couple, April Modibedi. „We worked together for a long time. He was a good man. Whenever I had lost a sheep, he helped me in the search to find it back again.”…  .http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/wereld/article2976849.ece/Afrikaner_boeren_in_de_steek_gelaten_.html

links:

• cops who don’t do their jobs: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-does-metro-sergeant-afford-lush.html
• who are the cops, who are the thugs? http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/01/who-are-cops-who-are-thugs.html
• cops who don’t do their jobs: the failure to investigate the Boshoff family farm attack: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/01/boshoff-family-farm-attack-details.html
• Tens of thousands of cops in drunken bash Jan 29 2010: Tens of thousands of SA cops in drunken bash
• white poverty in SA growing: BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7526158.stm

Our picture albums of murdered, attacked and traumatised Afrikaners and Boers

• 2010 FACEBOOK ALBUM - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040597&id=1026941238&saved#/album.php?aid=2040597&id=1026941238

2008/9 albums…

• Initials from A to B: http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20Kill%20the%20Farmer%202009%20victims%20A%20-%20B
• B to J: http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20Kill%20the%20Farmer%202008%20victims%20A%20-%20J
• C to F http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20Kill%20the%20Farmer%202009%20victims%20C%20-%20F
• G to J: http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/brwse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20Kill%20the%20Farmer%202009%20victims%20G%20-%20J
• K to S: http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20kill%20the%20Farmer%202009%20victims%20K%20-%20S
• N to O: http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20kill%20the%20Farmer%202009%20victims%20N%20-%20O
• P to R: http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20kill%20the%20farmer%202009%20victims%20P%20-%20R
• Q to Z -1 http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20Kill%20the%20Farmer%202009%20victims%20Q%20-%20Z
• Q to Z -2 http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20kill%20the%20Farmer%202009%20victims%20S%20-%20Z

Sergeant Wiseman Sibusiso Mpisane – monthly income R15,000 -- owns this mansion and the one next door…

A Facebook page has been launched to get justice for murdered Durban Dog Unit police officer  sergeant Craig van Zyl. His friends write that he was ‘shot and killed by the worst kind of criminals… managed and organised by another SA policeman who works for the Durban metropolitan police dog unit. “

“Craig was my friend and I want to see some justice come out of the South African Justice System for once. Please add your name and when we have gathered enough, I will personally send them all to the Commisioner Of Police as well as the Minister for Law and Order. And if you add your name, I will promise you that I will not rest until this Sgt. Mpisane has been held accountable for his actions. Taxi bosses and common criminals may run and hide at the mention of his name, but I am an ex-S.A Policeman and it takes more than this piece of garbage to make me run and hide....and I expect you feel the same,” his friend writes.

Sergeant Wiseman Sibusiso Mpisane, monthly takehome pay R15,000, owns this mansion and the one next door…

Noseweek magazine recently reported that, while Mpisane's take-home pay as a Durban Metro Police sergeant, even with overtime, amounts to around R15,000 (about $1,500) a month at the Durban Metro Police Dog Unit, his  home address is 88 Addison Road, La Lucia, KZN  (right)  – and also the mansion next door...

The Independent on Saturday also highlighted the sergeant’s flash lifestyle, reporting on January 23 2010 that the two Mpisane buildings are ‘illegal’ and break every building code in the book.  Mpisane buildings 'illegal'

 Noseweek wrote that ‘the identity of the person living at 88 Addison Drive , La Lucia (a spectacular resort made famous by the Oppenheimers many decades ago as a seaside destination for the rich and famous) has in recent months been the subject of intense speculation amongst the locals: is he/she a rock star? A rap artist? Arms dealer? Oil baron? It had to be someone flash who took up residence in the mansion bought last year at auction for R17m. It has since been extensively renovated. It seems the owner has also taken possession of the house adjoining 88 Addison , at 1 Moreland Drive . The latter property, a stately pile in its own right, has been walled in to form part of the Addison Drive complex. The present consensus is that the occupant must be an oil sheik. There is a constant stream of small boys and grown men walking, driving and cycling up and down the road outside, all come to ogle the pieces of automotive pornography parked in the driveway: an Aston Martin DB9 sports car, a Lamborghini Diablo, a Bentley Continental... All are shiny black.The giant Mercs, Bee-ems and Porsches in the fleet are almost too common to mention. Men in dark suits, carrying assault rifles, frequently chase the oglers away if they get too close to the mansion, or its many cars. A ring of closed-circuit cameras records their every move.

Neighbours had long imagined that the residents of 88 Addison had named their home Mpisane, but thats not the case at all. Mpisane is the name of the owner of the compound. Municipal records show that the home is owned by Wiseman Sibusiso Mpisane, until recently a constable, now a sergeant, in the Durban Metro Police.

So many high-profile ANC politicians are seen at the compound that Noseweek was initially told in error that the home was owned by the KZN Premier.
Mpisane's own colleagues say that Mpisane is highly thought-of. Taxi bosses and township thugs run in terror at the mere mention of his name.

Noseweek writes that it's no use asking Metro manager Michael Sutcliffe whether Mpisane has permission to moonlight in a second job (he'd have to have a lucrative one to maintain this establishment), since Mr Sutcliffe has already decreed that any questions about Mpisane are racist and will be ignored.

Metro Mike came to that startling conclusion in his address to the eThekwini Municipality Executive Committee nearly two years back, in response to revelations published in the Citizen newspaper (Noseweek81) that his Metro Police had lost hundreds of firearms and that some of these had allegedly been sold to cash heist gangs by Metro policemen. Durban metro blues: whatever happened to those 150 missing guns? http://www.noseweek.co.za/article.php?current_article=1197

• Former Noseweek corrrespondent Paul Kirk had asked Sutcliffe to explain just how it was that Mpisane came to keep his job as a Metro Police constable after being linked to a murderous shooting by taxi hitmen and then absconding from work for nearly a year….

In May 1998 a BMW M5 sports car belonging to Mpisane was one of several getaway vehicles used by a gang of hitmen who wrought havoc outside the Durban High Court during a high-profile trial of various taxi bosses.

Picture: Sergeant Craig van Zyl of the SAPS Durban Dog Unit was driving to the airport when he spotted a number of gunmen carrying AK47 rifles walking toward the High Court. Van Zyl stopped his car to challenge the men, and was gunned down. He bled to death on the road outside the court. Dozens of passersby were wounded in the gunfight - among them a pensioner on her way to do her weekly grocery shopping who also died at the scene.

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Murder and Robbery Unit detectives managed to identify the BMW M5 getaway vehicle as belonging to Mpisane, who even 10 years ago clearly had way more money than the average cop.

A manhunt was launched for Mpisane by the erstwhile Durban Murder and Robbery Unit who had some questions they wanted the constable to answer. In press interviews they pleaded for him to contact them but for well over a year nobody saw Mpisane, not even his employers.

And then, mysteriously, Mpisane was back at work. And just as mysteriously Metro Mike has apparently never seen fit to ask why Mpisane went into hiding after being linked to a group of taxi hitmen.

Mpisane's take-home pay as a Metro Police sergeant, even with overtime, amounts to around R15 000 a month. He now works in the Durban Metro Police Dog Unit.

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The Independent on Saturday reported about the sergeant’s flash lifestyle on January 23 2010.

http://www.independentonsaturday.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5323491

The Citizen writes: “Constable Wiseman Mpisane, the Durban Metro Policeman whose wealth was in the spotlight with media reports of his R17-million home and collection of sports cars is the subject of a preliminary investigation by the Scorpions into whether he literally got away with murder before he began living the high life in La Lucia - the most expensive suburb of Durban.

More than two years ago the Citizen asked Durban's Municipal Manager Mike Sutcliffe questions about Mpisane's massive wealth. Sutcliffe told the Durban Municipality's Executive Committee that he had investigated Mpisane and found the traffic cop to be squeaky clean.

However the Citizen can reveal that Mpisane has a past that sounds like the plot of a Hollywood movie – and the policeman once confessed to playing a part in a bloody assault rifle attack on the Durban High Court. In May 1998 Durban was rocked when anarchy hit the streets. During the trial of several men accused of murdering taxi boss Moses Gcaba a group of gunmen launched an attack on the seat of justice. Their plan was to murder the accused inside the very halls of the High Court. The heroic actions of several policemen drove off the attack.

Sergeant Craig Van Zyl of the SAPS Durban Dog Unit was one of several cops who tackled the gunmen. Van Zyl was armed only with a handgun and was not wearing a bullet proof vest – he died in a hail of bullets. Eyewitnesses reported to police that some of the gunmen laughed at they sowed terror – firing wildly around the High Court. An 80 year old woman who was doing her shopping was shot and killed in the crossfire. Dozens were seriously injured.

The Murder and Robbery unit arrested three of the suspects at the scene – and another was killed as police returned fire. Three AK47 rifles, many magazines of ammunition, some loaded with armour piercing bullets and a number of handguns were recovered abandoned at the scene.

An elite unit set up by Nelson Mandela to tackle taxi violence, the Special Presidential Taxi Task Team, took over the investigation into the shooting. This unit immediately began a manhunt for the two gunmen who escaped. Eyewitnesses described their getaway vehicle – and the task team managed to obtain traffic camera footage showing the vehicle.

• The camera footage showed the car, a red BMW, was driven by Constable Wiseman Mpisane. Mpisane was arrested, but never stood trial. This week very senior policemen involved in the investigation broke their silence – telling the Citizen the story of the traffic cop who got away with murder. The investigators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Citizen that after Mpisane was arrested he immediately agreed to give evidence against the person who he alleged ordered the attack.

Mpisane agreed to become a witness in terms of Section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act. In doing so Mpisane agreed to testify against others – if the presiding judge found that his evidence was truthful then Mpisane would be granted immunity for his role in the bloodbath.

The then Deputy Attorney General of KZN Dave Damorel was personally instrumental in arranging Mpisane's testimony in terms of this legislation.However before Mpisane could take the stand against the multimillionaire taxi boss Mandla Gcaba – who Mpisane fingered as the mastermind behind the High Court bloodbath, the traffic cop vanished. Judge Allan Howard gave investigators four months to find the traffic cop – but after four months he resumed the trial. With no star witness in the form of Mpisane, Howard found Mandla Gcaba and Jabulani Dumakude not guilty of conspiracy to murder.

He convicted the two high court shooters who were arrested on the scene – sentencing them to life behind bars. The prosecution of Gcaba hinged on Mpisane's testimony. Then, days after Gcaba's acquittal, a well fed Mpisane arrived back at Metro Police headquarters and asked for his job back. When questioned by investigators Mpisane claimed he ‘had been kidnapped and taken to a tropical island’. Investigators found this odd – it is the only case known to them where a witness had been kidnapped and taken to a holiday resort to silence them.

However Mpisane was never charged with any criminal offence relating to his conduct, the state felt it could not disprove his claim to have been kidnapped. His confession to police, given in terms of Section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act could not legally be used to prosecute him.

The Citizen asked Sutcliffe to comment on Mpisane's Section 204 confession to being part of a conspiracy to murder. Sutcliffe, who was given several days to comment, ignored the Citizen's request. Investigations by this newspaper also reveal that Mpisane is married to the sister of Sbu Mkhize – a notorious armed robber and murderer who was shot dead by Murder and Robbery Unit detectives in 1992.

• Mkhize was one of the earliest practitioners of cash in transit robberies – and not all of the cash he stole during his reign of terror was recovered. Although a member of the ANC, Sbu's killings were nearly all committed after the ANC renounced the armed struggle.
• The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission records several of these murders – and speculates that Sbu's reign of police killings was motivated by a desire to avenge his fathers death at the hands of the KwaZulu Police.

The Citizen has also established that Mpisane's wife – Shawn (sic) Mkhize – also owns Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Construction. This company has received millions in contracts to build low cost housing. Last year her company received contracts to the value of R179 million from the Durban municipality.

Mpisane has not responded to requests for comment. Sutcliffe this week announced that he was ‘probing whether council tender procedures were followed with regards companies that Mpisane is associated with”.

Mandla Gcaba – the taxi boss Mpisane implicated in murder - is among the wealthiest men in South Africa. Although he has been charged with several crimes relating to taxi violence he has never been convicted. Today Gcaba is involved in several peace initiatives within the once volatile taxi industry.

Tlali Tlali, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, told the Citizen that the Director of Public Prosecutions was looking into the Mpisane case to establish the full story behind Mpisane and the millionaire taxi boss he never testified against.

Said Tlali: "Something is very strange here and needs to be cleared up. The DPP is making contact with people involved in the original investigation. The matter was only reported to the Scorpions in Durban on Friday and is in the preliminary stages. We are considering whether or not to register an investigation." The story above was published in The Citizen a full two YEARS ago… http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13777037079#/topic.php?uid=13777037079&topic=4453

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