Three months after the gruesome killing of Olorato Mongale, one of the suspects in the killing that shocked the country is still on the run.
The police are yet to catch Bongani Mthimkhulu, the alleged associate of Philangezwi Makhanya, who was killed in a June shoot-out with police in Amanzimtoti in Durban.
Makhanya allegedly fled to KwaMashu, a township north of Durban, immediately after learning that the police were hot on his heels in relation to the murder. He later fled to a hideout on the South Coast, where he was shot dead. Police are yet to trace Mthimkhulu.
Just like his now-late alleged conspirator, Mthimkhulu is from KwaZulu-Natal, and both moved to Gauteng, from where they reportedly lured women with fake dates to rob and kill them.
KZN police spokesperson Col Robert Nentshiunda seemingly washed the provincial police’s hands of the failure to apprehend Mthimkhulu. “This is a Gauteng matter; we were assisting because it happened that the suspect ran to KwaZulu-Natal. But this is a Gauteng matter where it happened,” he told Sunday World.
His national counterpart, Brig Athlenda Mathe, said: “Yes, Mthimkhulu is still on the run.”
Poppy Mongale told Sunday World on Thursday that she is still waiting for justice. She also said that since her University of Witwatersrand Master’s degree student daughter was slain in May, police had not provided her with any updates.
She told Sunday World that the day before this interview, she had called the investigating officer to ask him what had been found in her daughter’s cell phone, which the
police had kept for a forensic examination. She alleged he told her that the forensic team still had her daughter’s phone and couldn’t unlock it.
“I told him it was not possible, because two months ago my daughter’s service provider had unlocked the device.”
She said she had found that out when she queried the cell phone bill, which was higher than usual, even though it had not been used since Mongale’s death. “They told me the charge was for unlocking the phone after police asked them to [do so],” said Poppy, adding that she had bought Mongale the phone on contract in her name; hence, the bills were coming to her.
“This is bothering me – I sense this murder will become another cold case. I don’t get what the police are up to.”
The investigator, only identified as Detective T Phaswane, told Sunday World that Mongale’s phone was still with the forensics team, sealed.
He disputed that the service provider could have opened the phone that had never been taken to them.
He also insisted that it was the mother who should be calling the police for updates. “She is the one who should call us to get an update, not for her to speak to the journalist.
“We work on hundreds and hundreds of cases. It’s not only her matter that we are focusing on. She must be patient,” said Phaswane.
He refused to answer any further questions, declaring it “was a confidential matter”.
Mongale’s lifeless body was found dumped in Lombardy, north of Johannesburg, towards the end of May.
When she left her Johannesburg home, she had told her friends that she was going on a date with a man she had met in a mall in Bloemfontein.
Her alleged killer later arrived at her residential complex in a white VW Polo to pick her up. It later emerged that the vehicle had been fitted with fake number plates.
Mongale was later found dead, and some of her property, including a phone and a handbag, was found abandoned in a neighbouring suburb. She was 30 years old.
