TUESDAY, 5.30PM
THREE men, including a policeman absent without leave and a police reservist, appeared in the Richmond Magistrate’s Court in KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday afternoon on a charge of attempted murder.
The accused are policeman Bongaleni Robert Ntolo, 26, reservist Thembinkosi Muqga Ngwenya, 39, and Bongani James Phiri, 32. The case was remanded until August 19 for a bail application hearing. All three men were remanded in custody.
Ntolo and another Awol policemen are among the men police investigating murders in the Richmond area since the early 1990s believed could assist in their investigations. The pair was named as the first suspects in the July assassination of five African National Congress members, including two newly elected councillors, in Richmond.
The attempted murder charge relates to a shooting incident in Indaleni near Richmond on Sunday morning during, which the three accused allegedly opened fire on the complainant.
Four people were shot and wounded and several houses gutted in violent incidents which began in Magoda and Indaleni on Saturday afternoon and continued on Sunday. More than 1000 people have fled the area and taken refuge in nearby Richmond village.