Police probing syndicate assassinations, SAPS spokesperson says

Detectives are investigating whether a syndicate is behind the recent killings of suspects named in theMadlanga commission, South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesperson Athlenda Mathe has said. Speaking after the reported suicide of Wiandre Pretorius, a police reservist named as a murder suspect at the Madlanga Commission, Athlenda said the SAPS had registered an inquest docket. “The question is: Are we dealing with a syndicate that is eliminating each other in relation to the Emmanuel Mbhense murder?

So, that is what our detectives are probing. Are we dealing with the syndicate that is eliminating each other in terms of their role and involvement in the murder of Emmanuel Mbense? So, that is an aspect that we are looking at,” Mathe said.

Pretorius was implicated by Marius van der Merwe, also known as Witness D, into the alleged 2022 murder by torture of Mbhense while being interrogated by Ekurhuleni metro police officers in April 2022. Van der Merwe was himselfassassinated in Decemberafter testifying at the Madlanga commission, which is investigating corruption in the criminal justice system. On Monday, the commission heard testimony from City of Ekurhuleni head of risk and legal services Khemraj “Kemi” Buhari, who was implicated in covering up an illegal memorandum of understanding with a private security company of businessman and alleged leader of the Big Five cartel Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

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Buhari denied interfering in the disciplinary process of Ekurhuleni metropolitan police department (EMPD) deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi who signed off on the memorandum. Allegations of corruption within the EMPD former part of the commission’s investigation into Matlala’s influence. Senior police officials have said the assassination of Armand Swart, a Vereeniging engineer believed to have been mistaken for a whistleblower in a Transnet tender scandal, led to a police raid at Matlala’s house which subsequently triggered the disbandment of a KwaZulu-Natal-based political killings task team by suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.

Police say eight of the persons of interest in Mbense’s murder are alive. Spokesperson Mathe said the execution-style killings of the suspects had started in March 2023 and indicated a syndicate eliminating the people implicated. “The first one was killed in March 2023, also at a filling station, execution style.

The second one was October 2025 and the third, being Witness D, was also killed assassination style,” she said. Pretorius, the fourth person of interest, reportedly shot himself at a petrol garage while his wife, Juan-Mare Eksteen, was in the passenger seat. Last week, he claimed to havesurvived an assassinationattempt in which a hail of bullets splattered his car outside his home in Brakpan.

Mathe said Pretorius had not been due to be called to testify at the Madlanga inquiry, adding: “His name was only mentioned by Witness D at the commission,” she said. Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels also said Pretorius was not on the witness list although his name had been mentioned during testimony.

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