Two dedicated police officers are sitting unjustly behind bars while armed hitmen allegedly linked to a KwaZulu-Natal taxi boss with ties to former police minister, known to Sunday World, are roaming the streets.
This was said by law expert at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Mary de Haas in a letter she wrote to Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu, demanding swift action from him.
In the letter, dated November 18, De Haas said the shocking case highlighted the murky and dangerous interplay between law enforcement, political power and organised crime in KwaZulu-Natal.
De Haas said that in October 2022, sergeant Thanduxolo Phelago and constable Mayendran Chetty of the Umkomaas SAPS intercepted and arrested three hitmen armed with AK-47s, apparently en route to commit murder, fortified by umuthi.
The officers, hailed as heroes in their community, were slated to receive an excellence award from provincial police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. However, according to De Haas, the commendation ceremony abruptly turned into an arrest when a political killings task team detained them on ‘dubious’ charges of murder.
De Haas said the charges – four counts of murder – were mired in inconsistency and suspicion. The murders, allegedly committed on the night of August 22 or 23, 2022, span a geographic area that makes the two officers’ involvement implausible.
SAPS vehicle tracking had demonstrated that the officers were on duty in Umkomaas at the time of the alleged offences. However, the task team appeared uninterested in such inconvenient details, preferring to attribute these murders to the officers who, according to De Haas, deserve to be celebrated rather than imprisoned.
Even more alarming was the outcome of the hitmen’s arrest, De Haas said. The wrongful incarceration of the officers led to their absence at a court hearing of the suspected hitmen.
She said this egregious blunder raised serious concerns about the purpose and conduct of the task team, which included a prosecutor, known to Sunday World, who was accused of fabricating evidence and coercing false witness statements against Phelago and Chetty.
De Haas was unflinching in her condemnation of the travesty. “The gross incompetence and corruption displayed by the task team not only endanger public safety but also undermine the very foundations of justice.
“General (name withheld) and, quite possibly, the prosecutor involved should face charges of defeating the ends of justice for releasing two dangerous hitmen.”
The political undertones she painted were equally unsettling. Reports linked the hitmen to a powerful South Coast taxi boss with ties to the for police minister, casting a shadow over the motivations behind their release.
De Haas lamented the disturbing lack of action by authorities despite prior reports of paramilitary activity in the region further highlighting the systemic failures within the SAPS.
She said the case cried out for an independent investigation into the task team’s conduct and an immediate review of the officers’ wrongful detention. As De Haas insisted, “No further time must be lost in disbanding this sinister task team.
