Police have been implicated in the assassination of two fellow officers, reports Mungo Soggot
THE latest victims of South Africa’s bitter taxi wars are Detective Sergeants Richard Khosa and Michael Baloyi, two of the Pretoria township Soshanguve’s most experienced officers, with more than 20 years service behind them.
On the eve of giving crucial testimony in a murder case, Khosa left the township’s police station with Baloyi last Tuesday night, unaware he was being followed by three assassins. When they reached Baloyi’s house, their pursuers jumped out of their car and opened fire. They pumped three bullets into Baloyi and four into Khosa, killing them both.
Khosa was a key witness in a murder case at the heart of a taxi war in the area which could involve rogue policemen. Police investigators suspect he was eliminated because of the evidence he was to give. Baloyi had also worked on the case.
In September 1993, Joel Vuma, head of the local federation of taxi associations, was ambushed by hit men in Soshanguve and shot dead. His passenger, now part of a witness protection programme, escaped.
Police spokesman Bushy Engelbrecht said the police had arrested and charged three suspects at the time, one of whom had since drowned. The remaining two Zwede Mathebula and William Masemola were due to have appeared in the Pretoria Supreme Court last Wednesday, but as a result of Khosa and Baloyi’s murders the case has been postponed until next February.
Engelbrecht said investigators handling the Khosa and Baloyi shootings will probe claims lodged this week by another taxi association that policemen masterminded the assassinations. Police have arrested three illegal immigrants from Mozambique who they suspect were the hit men, but have yet to discover who paid them. The three are being held in Pretoria under legislation which allows the police to detain illegal immigrants for up to three weeks.
The Lehlabile Taxi Organisation has handed a document to Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi backing up its allegations that police had a hand in the murders. It has demanded a meeting with National Police Commissioner George Fivaz.
Engelbrecht said both Khosa and Baloyi were highly respected, and their murders have sparked anger among senior Pretoria policemen. Colonel Hendrik Potgieter, their commander for the past two years, said the South African Police Service had lost two experienced and loyal officers.
* Six people were killed on Wednesday when gunmen fired on a minibus taxi at Klipgat near Mabopane in North-West province. Sapa reported that police suspected the attack could be related to an incident in Soshan-guve earlier that day when two people were wounded in a gunfight between the Lehlabile Taxi Organisation and a rival taxi association.