The scene of the murder of Marius “Vlam” van der Merwe, who testified as Witness D at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. A SENIOR Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) officer who worked with slain Madlanga Judicial Commission of Inquiry witness, Marius van der Merwe, has ruled out zama-zamas from his cold-blooded murder on Friday. The officer, who was part of the operation to clear the Plastic City informal settlement in Brakpan of illegal miners, said if the zama-zamas wanted to kill Van der Merwe, they would have done so a long time ago.
The Plastic City informal settlement is a longstanding complaint by the Brakpan community, and law enforcement agencies demolished thousands of shacks in October. “Even on the same day he came back from the Madlanga Commission, we spoke over the phone, and I asked if he was okay. He said he was, but I could hear he was shaking,” said the officer who asked not to be named.
The officer added that in the same call, Van der Merwe admitted that he was not fine but had his firearm, which he carried with him wherever he went. “One thing I know about him, he always wanted to do things the right way,” added the officer. Although Van der Merwe, who was affectionately known as “Vlam” and “Yster”, Afrikaans for flame and iron, was a family man, the officer said he dropped everything when his community was affected by crime.
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The officer is adamant that illegal miners had enough opportunities to kill him if they wanted to. “If it were zama-zamas, they were supposed to kill him a long time ago. Marius used to chase zama-zamas alone until they reached the shaft.
Zama-zamas shoot you there at the mine; they don’t move out of their territory. That’s what I know because I’ve worked with zama-zamas before,” the officer added. He said it was unlikely for zama-zamas to trace people’s home addresses.
“They don’t have that time because most of their time is spent underground. If they wanted to kill him, they would have done so a long time ago because Marius operated even alone. He would go there alone even at night,” the officer added.
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