Two of the five suspects arrested for the murder of Jimmy Mohlala, the late speaker of Mbombela, are being investigated for other high-profile criminal activities.
The five suspects, all of whom live in Matsulu outside Mbombela and who were arrested on Saturday and Monday, include two police officers. They are unemployed Moses Mahungela (33), constable Dumisani Mhlanga (33) of the Nelspruit flying squad, constable Musa Mkhabela (30) of the KaNyamazane police, Sakhile Mabika-Mona (30) and his mother, Jenny Mabika (56), a cleaner at the Rob Ferreira Hospital.
Captain Leonard Hlathi, the Mpumalanga police spokesperson, said on Thursday: “Mabika-Mona and Mahungela have been implicated in high-profile cases that I cannot mention at present because they are still under investigation. Police are still looking into reports that the mother, Jenny Mabika, has also been implicated in the theft of medical equipment from the hospital where she works,” he said.
All five are charged with murder and attempted murder, but have not been asked to plead yet.
A source close to the investigation has claimed that the two police officers had escorted the assassin, a mystery man known only as “Josh”, from the scene in marked flying squad vehicles.
“The real hit man is Josh, I am telling you. He has been in the country for the last two weeks under protection from the National Prosecuting Authority [NPA].
“They even went and dug up the shallow graves in Elandshoek farm where some of his victims were buried. The corpses were taken for DNA testing,” said the source.
Mthunzi Mhaga, the NPA spokesperson, declined to comment and Hlathi dismissed the source’s allegations.
Earlier this year James Nkambule, Cope’s chairperson for Mpumalanga’s Ehlanzeni region, claimed that a hit man named Josh had confessed to murdering Mohlala. He said Josh had confessed to him and signed a statement to that effect.
In the sworn statement, which African Eye News Service has seen, Josh claims to be a hired assassin contracted by a senior ANC leader and a soccer team boss to eliminate their business and political rivals. He claims he was paid to kill Mohlala.
Mohlala was killed a week before he was scheduled to testify about former municipal manager Jacob Dladla’s refusal to implement 361 council resolutions, as well as Dladla’s role in the poor management of the 2010 Mbombela stadium project.
Mohlala was also planning to recommend that fraud charges be laid against Lefika Emerging Equity, which appears to have sent a fraudulent letter on a Mbombela letterhead, dated December 22 2008, to First National Bank as surety for an overdraft facility.
The letter bears the name of Sigananda Siboza, the acting municipal manager, but Mohlala and Siboza both claimed the letter was fraudulent. — African Eye News Service