The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is under fire after the assassination of private security boss and whistle-blower Marius van der Merwe. There are questions about whether his death could have been averted had the police watchdog acted swiftly. His explosive testimony before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry revived questions about the watchdog’s failure to act on a 2022 murder case it has handled for three years with no resolution.
Ipid has been investigating the alleged murder of 51-year-old Emmanuel Mbense on 15 April, 2022. His body was discovered the following day at Duduza Dam in Nigel, with his car keys and drivers’ licence in his pocket. According to AfriForum, the death certificate recorded the cause of Mbense’s death as blunt force trauma to the head.
Despite the severity of the case and the direct implication of several Ekurhuleni metro police officers, the Ipid investigation seemingly stalled, yielding no arrests and no updates to the family. On the morning of Van der Merwe’s testimony at the Madlanga commission, an Ipid investigator allegedly warned the family that details about Mbense’s death would emerge. Van der Merwe, who testified as Witness D to protect his identity, implicated four individuals in Mbense’s killing and admitted to disposing of the body in the dam.
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On 5 December, just days after his evidence, he was gunned down in the driveway of his Brakpan home. This followed an earlier attempted hit in September, after which he reported being followed.
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