Stefaans Brummer
THE arrest of Dr Omar Sabadia on an allegation of complicity in the murder of his wife, Zahida, has highlighted the relationship between the Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad and two private investigators, former hitsquad member “Slang” van Zyl and convicted double- murderer Jack la Grange.
Some police and judicial eyebrows lifted this week when it emerged that superintendent Charlie Landman, head of Brixton, had been the one to extract a confession from, and arrest, Sabadia when detective superintendent Blackie Swart from Potchefstroom — the South African Police Service headquarters responsible for the North West Province area of Garankuwa, where the murder was committed — had led the investigation.
The Mail & Guardian learnt this week that Van Zyl and La Grange, private investigators and former murder and robbery detectives hired by the family of Zahida Sabadia, had turned over information gleaned through “infiltration and surveillance” to Landman last Sunday night, prompting him to confront Sabadia.
Van Zyl said this week that he discussed a breakthrough with two lawyers, one acting for the victim’s family, last weekend. He said Landman was presented with the evidence, after which he accompanied them to Sabadia’s home. Sabadia’s confession led them to the body in a Garankuwa field, and to the house of alleged accomplice Patrick Manyape.
Van Zyl denied close links with the Brixton unit, saying they had co-operated only once before, three weeks ago. But a source with links to Brixton contradicted him, saying Landman and Van Zyl were “like brothers”. Landman could not be reached for comment.
La Grange, a former East Rand Murder and Robbery Squad chief, was released in 1991 after he had originally been sentenced to death in 1988 for the murder of two alleged drug dealers.
Van Zyl resigned in 1988 to join the South African Defence Force’s notorious Civil Co-operation Bureau’s (CCB) assassination and dirty tricks squad. He told the Harms Commission in 1990 that he had broken with the CCB the previous year, and confessed to involvement in several bizarre plots.
Van Zyl said that his private detective agency, Incom Investigations, had been started to “give me a cover while I was with the CCB”. La Grange joined his agency in 1992.
Van Zyl said of his and La Grange’s role as “unlikely heroes” in the Sabadia case: “We were just cogs in a team that did what had to be done. It is good to get some positive publicity for once.”