A hip-hop metro cop

With a R17-million mansion and a fleet of top-end sports cars and sports utility vehicles in the driveway, all under the watchful eye of armed guards, Durban Metro Police officer S’bu Mpisane is living a life straight out of a hip-hop music video. But there are more questions than answers about his lavish lifestyle.

Is he merely a good businessman, as his father explained to local media this week? Or, as one former colleague suggested, did he marry into money, which flows in through a host of companies that benefit from government tenders?

Or is there, perhaps, a darker connection to organised crime syndicates in the city, which may have been armed with guns originating from Metro police officers themselves?

Investigative magazine noseweek reported recently that Mpisane’s BMW M5 sports car was one of several getaway vehicles used by a gang of hitmen during a 1998 shootout outside the Durban High Court during the trial of high profile taxi bosses. The shooting left bystanders wounded and led to the death of Sergeant Craig van Zyl of the police dog unit.

Mpisane subsequently disappeared for almost a year before seamlessly returning to work — despite a ‘manhunt” for him launched by the former Durban murder and robbery unit, wrote noseweek.

‘He came back to work a year later and it was all kept very quiet,” said a high-ranking former policeman. ‘The matter was dealt with at a very high level and not very many people were briefed about what transpired. He may even have been in a witness protection programme, but it was all kept very hush-hush.”

According to the municipality’s senior human resources officer, Monty Naidoo, Mpisane was dismissed when he returned after a year’s absence, but was reinstated after lodging an appeal with the bargaining council.

Naidoo was unable to confirm the nature of Mpisane’s appeal.

Mpisane was also one of 13 police officers cleared by a 2006 investigation instituted by municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe into allegations ranging from gun-running to corruption, nepotism and maladministration.

DA caucus leader in the Durban municipality, John Steenhuisen, questioned the thoroughness of the internal investigation. ‘Another cop on that list, Dees Govender, was cleared but subsequently arrested by the Scorpions for corruption after being caught in a sting operation,” Steenhuisen pointed out.

Sutcliffe dismissed inquiries by the Mail & Guardian about Mpisane’s year-long absence, saying only that it had occurred before he was installed as municipal manager.

Mpisane did not respond to messages left by the M&G at one of his businesses, Zikhulise Auto Restorers in Briardene, Durban.

Sutcliffe has, meanwhile, launched an investigation into whether Mpisane was given permission to pursue outside business interests and whether he had declared them. He said the probe stemmed from a ‘separate set of procurement issues” almost two months ago. He refused to elaborate.

South African Municipal Workers Union KwaZulu-Natal secretary Jaycee Ncanana was sceptical about the probe, calling it a ‘smokescreen”. ‘Why is it taking so long? It takes a day for them to find out if a declaration [of outside interests by Mpisane] was made or not,” he said, adding that he was in possession of a declaration signed by Mpisane in 2007.

But Sutcliffe’s probe might be extended to Mpisane’s wife, Shaun Flora Mkhize, the daughter of Durban ward 96 councillor Florence Mkhize.

With noseweek reporting that the Mpisanes’ neighbours had seen various high-profile ANC politicians visiting their mansion in the upmarket suburb of La Lucia, there is no doubt the couple are politically connected.

And, according to the DA’s Steenhuisen, the Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport company has already benefited from a R179-million government contract for the maintenance and refurbishment of low-cost housing developments.

Other companies registered by Mpisane or his wife include Ukhozi Civil, Cleaning and Construction and a shelving company, Inyanga Restorers 559 cc.

Shaun Flora Mpisane referred questions from the M&G to her senior counsel, Jerome Brauns, who, in turn, referred them to lawyer Thipe Mothuloe, who did not respond to calls.

This week Metro Members Police Forum chairperson Wiseman Mchunu lauded Mpisane for ‘showing policemen the way forward towards financial independence” and avoiding bribery and corruption.

Others take a different view. Said Steenhuisen: ‘Such a lavish lifestyle would mean quite big business interests, which really makes one question his ability to do his job as a policeman if he’s getting calls about a matter at his business empire.

‘I also wonder if it is right for a policeman to have a panelbeating and automative restoration business. What happens if stolen cars come into his shop? Or if he is asked to investigate a car hijacking syndicate?”

Crippled by colleagues’ guns

Since being shot in the stomach during a gun battle with would-be hijackers in 2003, Durban Metro police officer Cherise Cox’s life has been ‘a nightmare”.

After 13 operations, she has ‘no large colon and only a little bit of my small intestine left”.

The 35-year-old lives with constant pain, restricted movement and a colostomy bag. She is attempting to wean herself off the 100mg of morphine she has to take every two or three days when the pain becomes too intense: ‘I feel like I’m too young for this, I feel like I’ve had my job — which I loved — and my life taken away from me,” says Cox.

‘Besides the pain, I’m trying to get off the morphine. But its hard. You get the sweats but you can never be warm enough … I’ve also been vomiting so much,” says Cox.

To compound the tragedy, the guns used against Cox belonged to the Durban Metro Police.

At the time it was alleged that the weapon which mutilated Cox was one of 128 guns found by an audit in 2002 to be missing from the municipal armory. There were suggestions that these had been sold to criminals by police officers.

An internal investigation by eThekwini municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe exonerated two officers, Thembinkosi Mthethwa and Sthembiso Zimu, of selling the guns. The investigation concluded that the weapons had been stolen from the two officers at gunpoint.

But several police officers were sceptical about the finding.

A 2006 Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) investigation into the missing fire-arms pointed to ‘discrepancies”.

The ICD report found that 21 case numbers provided by the Metro police as relating to stolen police weapons either did not match SAPS records or were non-existent.

It also found that 66 firearms had been reported missing but had not been recovered at the time the report was finalised. A further 25 firearms had been recovered, while two firearms reported stolen ‘actually belonged to private persons”.