Police under fire as missing Mbombela man’s family questions investigation

It has now been more than a month since the family of Dwayne Nash (45) was left shattered by shock and confusion following his disappearance.

They are convinced he is deceased after a man’s body was discovered in a forest last Friday, March 6.

Nash vanished on February 4 after reportedly telling domestic workers at his residence that he was leaving for a week and would not require their services.

Three weeks after his disappearance, his vehicle, a Daihatsu Rocky, was found stripped in a plantation.

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Nash’s nephew, Heinrich Britz, has accused police of failing to properly investigate the scenes where his uncle’s vehicle and body were found – only kilometres apart on the R40 between White River and Hazyview.

Britz, who visited both sites on Tuesday, March 10, told Lowvelder that he himself discovered his uncle’s ID book lying just five metres from where the body was found.

“The police did a disgraceful job. The rope was still hanging in the tree and some of his remains were still there,” Britz said.

A forestry investigator, who requested anonymity, confirmed that he had seen the vehicle as early as February 9 and repeatedly phoned the Hazyview Police Station to report the suspicious Daihatsu.

“The police ignored my calls. They never collected the vehicle, and after six days it was gone,” he said.

A man from Tzaneen who had sold Nash the vehicle in December phoned the family on February 26 to say police had contacted him about the stripped Rocky.

At that time, ownership had not yet been transferred to Nash.