/ 13 April 2008

Police exhume remains of mayor’s alleged victim

Police have exhumed the body of a man alleged murdered by the executive mayor of Bushbuckridge.

The body of Jeffrey Sedibe was exhumed on Friday, a day after the arrests of mayor Milton Morema (41) and a senior municipal official, Lakios Mosoma (42), said Captain Leonard Hlathi.

They are accused of murdering Sedibe when he tried to claim the R17 000 they had allegedly promised to pay him for killing a political opponent, Motion Mashile (36).

Mashile was kidnapped and later found dead in a street in Acornhoek, near Bushbuckridge, on June 4 2003.

”The grave that was dug up was pointed out by [Erasmus Rassie Makhubedu] who is an uncle to Sedibe,” said Hlathi.

The human remains exhumed will be sent for forensic tests to confirm that they are indeed those of Sedibe.

Meanwhile, Acornhoek’s regional manager, Phineas Selowe, has dismissed initial reports that created the impression that he was among those arrested for the crime.

The person the reports actually referred to was Mosoma, who was the regional manager of Casteel, Selowe’s lawyer, Andre Pistorius, said by telephone from Nelspruit.

Mosoma is accused of being an accomplice to the murders of Sedibe and Mashile, said Hlathi. Morema is accused of their murders.

The police’s Hlathi said Makhubedu, Sedibe’s uncle, was also allegedly implicated in the death of Sedibe.

Morema and Mosoma appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court on Friday where the case was postponed until April 14 in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate’s Court for a bail application. — Sapa