Cop killings hit Gauteng
2002-09-06 21:03
Johannesburg - The wave of police killings on the Rand has claimed its seventh victim in two weeks when a Vanderbijl Park policeman was ambushed at his home and shot three times in the chest.
The killings of police members around Johannesburg has taken on such proportions that Gauteng chief detective Deputy Commissioner Bushie Engelbrecht said on Friday he was inclined to think "revenge" was another possible motive.
"We cannot understand why they have to shoot and kill the police official if they only want the weapon. The cold-blooded murders do not make sense. I get the idea that revenge is also a motive," Engelbrecht said.
At least four men overpowered Inspector MK Mabula's wife, Florence, and stepdaughter Dikiledi (17) in their Vanderbijl Park home just after seven on Thursday night and tied them up. They then waited for Mabula, a detective of the Vaal-Rand serious and violent crimes unit, and shot and killed him on the porch.
They fled with his service pistol, a cellular phone and jewellery. "We are, however, investigating the possibility that the robbery was just a smokescreen," said police spokesperson Melanie Britz on Friday.
Another policeman, Constabel IM Molete of the Mondeor Police Station in Johannesburg, was murdered in Boipatong on the night of September 2. He was shot seven times - three shots to the chest, three in the back and one shot to the stomach. His service pistol was stolen and Britz said robbery "seems" to be the motive.
Inspector TS Moloi of the Soweto vehicle crime investigation unit was also attacked in Evaton on August 31. He was shot five times - twice in the head and once in the neck, chest and back - at noon. Nothing was stolen and the motive is a mystery.
Sergeant Nicholas Sithole was murdered for his weapon at Actonville on the North Rand on Tuesday morning and Inspector Leonard Mateyisi was shot and killed in Soweto and also robbed of his weapon on Monday evening. Inspector Joseph Mathatho was shot dead at Kathlehong on August 26.
All of them were off duty when they were murdered.
Engelbrecht said special task teams were investigating every police murder and 60% of these cases were usually solved.