Vigilante-style attack - arrests 'a priority'
2011-04-28 21:55
Pretoria - Police expect to make more arrests in the case involving a community policing forum (CPF) member accused of beating a man to death in a vigilante-style attack.
Deputy chief whip in the Gauteng provincial legislature, Jacqueline Mofokeng said on Thursday police had assured her the arrests were a priority and could be made in the next few days.
This followed the failure of 11 other men to report for an identity parade, as scheduled in court last week.
They had not done so by Wednesday, Mofokeng said.
Comment from police was not immediately available.
Johan van der Schyff, one of the 12 men allegedly involved in the murder of 55-year-old Lucas Gwangwa, was currently behind bars, despite making an urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria last Wednesday.
The previous day the Pretoria Regional Court refused Van der Schyff bail and summoned Pretoria cluster commander Major General Tommy Ntombeni to clarify certain issues, like why no other arrests were made.
"The urgent application did not benefit Van der Schyff at all as the court refused to make a judgment on the matter, instead making a ruling that it was a matter for the regional court," said Mofokeng.
Van der Schyff would remain in custody until his next court appearance on June 22.
Gwangwa of Mokopane in Limpopo, was certified dead on arrival at the Kalafong Hospital in Atteridgeville after the attack during the night of April 3, allegedly linked to the Valhalla sector 1 CPF.
He was allegedly beaten with golf clubs before being run over by a car in a local park, where homeless people slept.
It also emerged that the Valhalla CPF had 147 patrollers allegedly not registered with the Gauteng provincial safety department, as required by law.
Mofokeng said it had since been dissolved and replaced by an interim structure.
- SAPA
