Ziwaphi Relentless quest for the truth
Two police constables implicated in the murder of Jimmy Mohlala, speaker of Mpumalanga’s capital city, have been dismissed after an internal investigation found that they were at the murder scene.
Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Hlathi said Constable Dumisani Mhlanga, 34, of the Nelspruit flying squad and Constable Musa Mkhabela, 31, of the KaNyamazane police station, were found guilty of a serious misconduct in relation to the murder of Mohlala.
“I know that your concern would be why are we dismissing them from work when the court of law has not yet found them guilty. To answer you question, in terms of the South African Police Services Disciplinary Regulation 20 of 2006, if an internal investigation finds that a police officer is guilty of serious misconduct, we are entitled to dismiss them from work, irrespective of whatever the outcome of the criminal charges,” Hlathi told African Eye News Service on Thursday.
He said after being implicated in Mohlala’s murder, the duo were charged internally with several charges, including corruption and violation of the South African Police Service’s Code of conduct.
“The evidence gathered suggest that the constables were at the murder scene using state resources for untested, yet questionable reasons, which warranted an official removal from the police service. They were found guilty and sanctioned with dismissal effective from March 8, 2011,” said Hlathi._Hlathi said provincial police commissioner Thulani Ntobela had approved the officers’ dismissal.
Meanwhile, their lawyer, Slungu Thobela, said it did not make sense that his clients were dismissed from work without being found guilty in court.
“The dismissal is in violation of their rights and I hope they lodged an appeal with their union,” Thobela said.
Mhlanga and Mkhabela were arrested in October last year with three other suspects, Sakhile Mabika-Mona, 30, his mother Jenny Mabika, 56, who is a cleaner at Rob Ferreira Hospital and an unemployed man Moses Mahungela, 33.
They are accused of the murder of Mohlala and the attempted murder of his son, Tshepiso Mohlala, on January 4, 2009.
All five suspects are from Matsulu township outside Mbombela and are currently out on R6 000 and R10 000 bail respectively until March 23._The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is expected to make a decision on whether to prosecute the matter or not.
Mohlala, who was speaker of the Mbombela local municipality, was killed at his home in KaNyamazane on January 4 2009, just a week before he was scheduled to testify about former municipal manager of Mbombela local municipality, Jacob Dladla’s refusal to implement 361 council resolutions, as well as Dladla’s role in the poor management of the Mbombela 2010 stadium project.
Mohlala was also planning to recommend that fraud charges be laid against Lefika Emerging Equity, who appear to have sent a fraudulent letter on a Mbombela letterhead, dated 22 December 2008, to First National Bank as surety for an overdraft facility. The letter bears the name of former acting municipal manager, Sigananda Siboza, but Mohlala and Siboza both claimed the letter was fraudulent.
