The fog of confusion surrounding allegations of criminality in Mpumalanga’s politics has thickened following a claim that ‘whistle-blower” James Nkambule may have been poisoned.
A provincial official close to Nkambule’s chief adversary, the premier DD Mbuza, downplayed the shock autopsy report that cited poisoning as a possible cause of death.
He suggested that Nkambule had committed suicide.
‘Nkambule had been in and out of hospital. Wouldn’t the doctors have detected poisoning?” the official asked. ‘His family refused to take him to the government mortuary.”
Nkambule, a former ANC Youth League leader and an Mpumalanga district official of the Congress of the People (Cope), is the 10th provincial politician or official to die in suspicious circumstances in the past two years, allegedly for blowing the whistle on alleged assassinations and corruption linked to the building of Nelspruit’s World Cup stadium.
Autopsy report
The Sunday Times reported that the autopsy, by Mpumalanga’s chief medical officer, Gantcho Gantchev, found that Nkambule’s death was unnatural.
Gantchev reportedly found a white foamy material in Nkambule’s throat and windpipe, and about 30ml of brownish fluid, suggestive of poison ingestion, in his stomach.
An inquest docket has been opened.
His death followed the murder of Jimmy Mohlala, a prominent ANC member and former Mbombela speaker, who also spoke out about alleged stadium-related graft. Two weeks ago police arrested four suspects, including two police officers, in connection with his death.
Continuing controversy
Deepening the murk in South Africa’s ‘Wild East” is the continuing controversy over the existence of a supposed Mozambican hitman, ‘Josh”.
Provincial police, among others, say he is fictitious. But Mabutho Sithole, Mabuza’s spokesperson, said a man had told Mabuza that he had been ‘created as Josh” by the premier’s political opponents and that he was part of a plot to destroy Mabuza.
In February Nkambule handed police an affidavit purportedly written by ‘Josh” in which the alleged hitman claimed to have been hired by Mpumalanga officials and a soccer boss to eliminate political opponents, including Mohlala. But shortly afterwards Nkambule was arrested and charged with defeating the ends of justice and fraud for allegedly fabricating the statement.
Although Nkambule insisted he was in constant contact with ‘Josh”, some ANC leaders, like the police, believe Josh does not exist. Lucky Ndinisa, the ANC provincial secretary in Mpumalanga, said: ‘There was a time when we thought we would see Josh. I now believe he is imaginary.”
Lassy Chiwayo, an ANC provincial executive committee member and the Mbombela mayor, said it was difficult to say whether Josh existed or not. ‘The difficulty is that Nkambule, who claimed the existence of Josh, alleged [in 2001] there was a plot by ANC businessmen Mathews Phosa, Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale to overthrow the former president, Thabo Mbeki.
Mysterious “Josh”
I always hoped for some degree of corroboration [of the existence of Josh],” said Chiwayo, who himself is reported to have received death threats.
Leonard Hlathi, the Mpumalanga police spokesperson, said this week: ‘We don’t have a person called Josh. No one like that made a statement to us. Whoever knows Josh must bring him to us.”
But Sithole stuck to his story. ‘This person approached the premier to say he has been created to destroy him. He was put under police protection and is a [police] witness,” said Sithole, who told the Mail & Guardian to check the facts with Hlathi.
Sithole said that Nkambule sent a text message to Mabuza last December warning him that Sunday Times reporter Mzilikazi wa Africa was coming to Mpumalanga to carry out ‘Project 8”, an information-gathering exercise intended to destroy Mabuza’s credibility.
‘After two days the premier received another SMS from Nkambule asking him for financial assistance to take his daughter to Wits University. The premier did not respond. That’s when the problem started and ‘Josh’ resurfaced.”
Mpho Gabashane, the provincial health spokesperson, confirmed Gantchev’s findings, but said the department was waiting for the results of toxicological tests on Nkambule’s body. — Matuma Letsoalo
Long wait for an answer
Anyone interested in whether the Mpumalanga whistle-blower, James Nkambule, was poisoned may have to wait years for a toxicological finding, according to a report by Terence Nombembe, the auditor general.
But all is not lost: Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of police, is on the case. He told Parliament that the police turnaround strategy, aimed at clearing chronic backlogs at forensic laboratories, was bearing fruit.
In the report tabled in Parliament late last year Nombembe said the turnaround time for routine toxicology cases in the Pretoria, Cape Town and Johannesburg labs was 60, 90 and 120 days respectively.
The result was that “as at 31 August 2009, [there were] backlogs of four years at Pretoria, six years at Johannesburg and five years at Cape Town, based on calculations of average outputs and incoming cases”.
Nombembe cited unfilled vacancies as the main cause, but said inadequate storage space for samples, a lack of back-up power to ensure samples were not spoiled, inadequate information systems and low staff morale because the labs were unsuitably located were also to blame.
Police have confirmed that an inquest docket has been opened on Nkambule’s death, after the Sunday Times reported that a preliminary autopsy indicated he was poisoned.
Local police spokesperson Captain Leonard Hlathi confirmed that tissue samples were sent to the police forensic department for further investigation.
He would not be drawn on when results might be available.
The Sunday Times quoted the postmortem report of Mpumalanga chief medical officer Gantcho Gantchev as saying that a “white foamy material” had been found in Nkambule’s throat and windpipe and about 30ml of brownish fluid “suggestive of — poison ingestion” in his stomach.
Mthethwa said that the forensic backlogs had been reduced, citing a partnership with international experts as the main reason. Ballistics backlogs had been reduced by 39%, the backlog in the biology section by 33% and the backlog in questioned documents by 21%.
Only the chemistry section had recorded an increase during the 2009-2010 financial year, he said, with a 24% increase in “entries on hand”. — Yolandi Groenewald