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Crime scene cordoned off.
Lobby group AfriForum says it has asked police watchdog Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to urgently explain why it has taken years for it to finalise its investigation into the killing of Emmanuel Mbense.
Fifty-one-year-old Mbense was tortured to death allegedly by officials from the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), the South African Police Service (SAPS) and a private security company in April 2022.
His body was later dumped in a dam.
Before Marius van der Merwe “Witness D” was shot dead, he had testified before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that he had been instructed to dump the body.
The bereaved family has requested AfriForum’s assistance in its quest for justice.
AfriForum’s private prosecution unit spokesperson Barry Bateman says they are demanding arrests in the matter.
“We only got onto this matter four days after Mr Van de Merwe testified. We were approached by Mr Mbense’s family because they were alerted that morning and please understand, for three years … you don’t hear the details of how your brother/your father died. But you get called that morning by IPID investigators, saying expect some details to emerge at the Madlanga Commission.”
“The family listened to and heard for the first time how their loved one was fixated on using a method called tubing, murdered and dumped in a dam, that’s how the victim’s family finds out the details. Why haven’t these people been arrested and appeared in court?” adds Bateman.
Meanwhile, two commissioners from the Madlanga Commission visited the house of slain Witness D in Brakpan on Gauteng’s East Rand on Wednesday afternoon.
Van der Merwe was assassinated on Friday outside of his home while his wife and kids were in the car.
