Emmanuel Mbense was allegedly tortured, murder and his body dumped in a dam. Picture: AfriForum. The family of 51-year-old Emmanuel Mbense, who was allegedly tortured and murdered by law enforcement and private security officers before being dumped in a dam, has turned to AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit for justice.
Mbense was murdered on 15 April 2022 at his home in Brakpan. His body was discovered the following day at the Duduza dam in Nigel, with his car keys and driver’s licence in his pocket. The Mbense family learnt the grim details of his death for the first time when Marius van der Merwe, also known as Witness D, testified at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into allegations of rot, corruption and interference in the police and the criminal justice system.
Witness D testified that Mbense was allegedly killed by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), South African Police Service (Saps) and security officers on 15 April 2022. Van der Merwe, who exposed police misconduct in the killing, was assassinated last month. On the morning of Van der Merwe’s scheduled testimony, an investigator from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) warned the Mbense family that details about his death would emerge.
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AfriForum’s Head of the Private Prosecution Unit, Gerrie Nel, expressed concerns about the delay in investigating Mbense’s death. In the letter to the Ipid director, Jennifer Ntlatseng, Nel stated that Ipid’s conduct suggests that the implicated parties are being shielded from investigation and prosecution. “We write this letter at a time when it appears that almost all law enforcement agencies’ alleged levels of incompetence and criminal conduct can no longer be kept secret. “We view this as a stratagem to conceal from the public the extent of criminal activity in which members of law enforcement agencies are involved, as well as the apparent ineffectiveness, if not complicity, of the agencies established to combat criminal activity within law enforcement structures,” Nel said.
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