EXECUTED : Sammy Mpatlanyane. Picture by Andrew Hlongwane
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GUNNED DOWN: Jimmy Mohlala. Picture by Russell Roberts
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Mpumalanga, one of the most beautiful provinces in Mzansi, has become a slaghuis where bullets fly like butterflies.
Since 1994, trigger-happy hitmen have been shooting people left, right and centre as whistleblowers and enemies of the powerful are sent to early graves.
Yet the police are failing to make any arrests or breakthroughs.
n When Rose Alleta Mnisi, estranged wife of former Mpumalanga MEC for safety and security Luckson Mathebula, made an appointment to see this journalist, little did she know she was signing her death warrant.
After Mathebula heard about the secret meeting , he rushed to his then boss Matthews Phosa, premier of the province, to claim I was having an affair with his wife and we were working on an exposé to destroy him.
A few days after Phosa confronted me and my former editor with Mathebula’s wild allegations, Mnisi, a schoolteacher, was gunned down in broad daylight while she was walking home with pupils and colleagues from Khokhovela Primary School in Mkhuhlu near Hazyview. That was in June 1999.
Mathebula, his nephew Moses Mathebula, Moses Sambo and traditional healer Jimmy Chauke were arrested for Mnisi’s murder.
Mathebula’s girlfriend at the time, Thembi Pretty Gama, told the court she lent him her licensed firearm, which was used as the murder weapon, and provided the getaway vehicle.
The state dropped all charges against Mathebula after Gama, their star witness, later retracted her statement and fled the province, claiming she had received death threats.
Only Sambo, who was a hired hitman, was sent to jail for Mnisi’s murder.
Almost six months earlier Saul Shabangu, an ANC leader in Mbuzini near Komatipoort, was assassinated with an AK-47 assault rifle while having a late meeting with two officials in his house.
That was in November 1998.
The former ANC chairperson in the province, Fish Mahlalela, was implicated in Shabangu’s murder.
At the time, Mahlalela said: “I had nothing to do with the assassination.”
The survivors of the bizarre killing, Petros Shabangu and Miso Mabuza, have since gone into hiding.
To date nobody has been arrested.
Former Bushbuckridge mayor Caswell Maluleke is lucky to be alive after he was shot 14 times while parking his car in his yard in April 2000.
Speaking to Sunday World this week, Maluleke said: “It has been 10 years and I am still waiting for the arrest of the people who tried to kill me.”
Maluleke said though there were possible suspects, police had never arrested anyone.
Another survivor of the Mpumalanga killings is former ANC official Sizile Ndlovu in Tsuvulani, Bushbuckridge, whose house was sprayed with bullets from an AK-47 while he was inside with his family in July 2006.
This week Ndlovu, who has since joined Cope, said: “The police collected 13 spent AK-47 bullets outside my house, but nobody has been arrested so far.”
In January last year Mbombela speaker Jimmy Mohlala was gunned down outside his house in KaNyamazane near Nelspruit after he blew the whistle on alleged corruption on tenders to build the R1bn Fifa 2010 World Cup stadium in the province.
Mohlala’s son was shot in the leg.
Nobody has been arrested, even though there is a R100000 police reward.
And last Friday Sammy Mpatlanyane, spokesperson for the department of sports, arts and culture, was assassinated while asleep in his house in Nelspruit.
Others who did not survive include Lekwa municipality councillors Hebron Maisela and Sydney de Lange, who were murdered in 1998 after questioning tenders and contracts. Nobody was arrested.
Then there’s Saul Mkhwebane, PA to former Govan Mbeki municipality (Secunda) mayor Mdibanisi Tsheke, who allegedly committed suicide after an arson attack on the council’s finance office in 2002.
The police claimed the fire was to destroy evidence against senior officials.
Govan Mbeki chief financial officer Joshua Ntshuhle vanished before he was scheduled to testify about fraud in Tsheke’s discretionary fund in 2005. His car was found burnt out in Malawi.
Govan Mbeki deputy mayor Thandi Mtsweni was gunned down after launching investigations into tender irregularities in 2008. The police arrested six suspects, including the municipality’s new mayor Sipho Nkosi.
Nkosi was later released due to lack of evidence. Other suspects are in custody pending trial.
Bushbuckridge mayor Milton Morema and municipal regional manager Lakios Mosoma were arrested in connection with the 2008 murder of a teacher and an alleged hitman.
The case was struck off the court roll due to lack of evidence.
mzilikazi@sundayworld.co.za
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