/ 20 August 1999

Police deny Nkabinde docket claims

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Friday 7.15pm.

KWAZULU-NATAL police and the deputy director of public prosecutions, Chris MacAdam, have denied claims that police dragged their feet in investigating Sifiso Nkabinde’s assassination.

This joint statement follows a Mail and Guardian article which claimed Richmond police may have ”sat on the docket” for four months, thereby delaying the arrest of suspects.

”Mr MacAdam emphatically denies reports attributed to him or members of his investigation team that Director Eric Nkabinde and Senior Superintendent DJ Chiliza sat with he investigation for several months without giving it the necessary attention,” Macadam and police spokesman Director Bala Naidoo said in a joint statement on Friday evening.

”On the contrary Mr MacAdam was part of the Nkabinde investigation from the start of the investigation. Mr MacAdam was appointed by the National Director of Public Prosecutions to assist the detective to build a case for the prosecution.

”Mr MacAdam wishes to totally dissociate himself from such unsubstantiated allegations … Director Eric Nkabinde was the co-ordinator of the investigation and was not personally involved in the investigation.”

The statement added that information received two weeks before the arrests was the breakthrough in the investigation.

12.15pm.

POLICE have arrested a sixth suspect in connection with the assassination of alleged warlord and former KwaZulu-Natal United Democratic Movement leader Sifiso Nkabinde.

KwaZulu-Natal deputy director of public prosecutions Chris McAdam told Radio 702 on Friday that the suspect had been arrested on Thursday night. McAdam said the sixth suspect will appear along with the five arrested earlier at their next court appearance.