Soweto police are investigating the possibility that some of their own helped equip an alleged murderer and rapist and assisted him in remaining a step ahead of the law.
Area commissioner for Soweto Nkanyiso Maphanga last week told the Mail & Guardian that the police are investigating allegations that Dobsonville gangster Bhekizitha Nxumalo (20), who is better known as “Nkwenkwe”, was supplied with a police-issue bullet-proof vest and ammunition by corrupt police members.
“These are very serious allegations and we need to confirm if there is any truth [in them]. We do not need such people in the police, people who are in cahoots with criminals,” said Maphanga.
Nxumalo, who was dubbed “Bin Laden” in Dobsonville, is charged with murdering two people, raping a woman, attempting to kill four people and twice pointing a firearm. Nxumalo was arrested earlier this month and is expected to reappear in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court on September 29, Soweto police spokesperson Captain Mbazima Shiburi said this week.
He has not been asked to plead and his case is expected to be transferred to the Johannesburg High Court should it go to trial.
Maphanga said Nxumalo is being held at the Protea police cells because of the allegations that were made about the Dobsonville police and also because the case had been transferred to the Protea-based serious- violence crime unit, a more appropriate place to monitor him.
It is not the first time police handling of the Nxumalo case has been questioned. One of Nxumalo’s alleged victims told the M&G of learning that the Dobsonville police had opened a docket for the case but had never followed it through.
“When we asked what had happened to the docket, nobody at the Dobsonville police station was prepared to accept responsibility for taking my statement,” the alleged victim told the M&G. “The docket had nothing on it, not even a police stamp.”
The case has since been transferred to the Protea police. Locals accuse the police of indifference because they had seen Nxumalo drive around the township freely, even attending parties regularly. It was at one such party that he was eventually arrested.
Allegations of police complicity surfaced last year when a Diepkloof police commissioner was gunned down by escaped prisoner Thabang Khumalo in May last year.
Gauteng Safety and Security Minister Nomvula Mokonyane at the time launched an investigation into possible police collusion. No headway has been made, Maphanga said, and Khumalo, whom police hope will spill the beans on who helped him escape, is still at large.
Mokonyane’s spokesperson, Mongezi Mnyani, said his department’s role in the Nxumalo investigation would be to ensure that “this matter does not just disappear”.
“We will monitor that the investigation goes ahead and that justice is seen to be done for the members of the public and the victims,” said Mnyani.
It is believed that three of the murders were committed over the Easter weekend. Since then, township residents have been reluctant to venture out after dusk for fear of being added to Nxumalo’s gang’s list of victims.
Some told the M&G that once the gangsters had pulled out their guns, seldom did they return them to their holsters without firing a shot.