Johannesburg - Hours after allegedly torturing a man to death, executing two others and dumping their bodies in the veld, the police officers allegedly told their victims’ families the men had fled and were nowhere to be found.
This attempted cover-up was just one of the revelations at the bail application for two of the four accused of the gruesome murders, all of whom appeared on Tuesday at the Oberholzer Magistrate’s Court in Carletonville.
Springs police constables Clement Madondo and Nkopodi Maphale, and informants Floyd Mpho Matlala and Lwazi Ndlangamandla are accused of kidnapping a group of murder suspects, torturing one of them to death and killing another two in April this year.
While one of the four kidnapped suspects escaped the execution, three bodies were left in the veld for more than two weeks before an informant, who had witnessed the incident, came forward.
While Madondo and Matlala’s lawyers, Riaan Louw and Jan van Heerden, respectively, argued that their clients had been bullied into the murder plot by Maphale, prosecutor Victor Simelane ultimately revealed large portions of the State’s case as he fought to prevent the pair from receiving bail.
Louw described Maphale as a dangerous and unscrupulous person who had once fired 13 shots at his client – meaning Madondo was too frightened to snitch on his colleague.
But according to Simelane, there was no reason to believe that Maphale had threatened the families of Matlala and Madondo because Madondo had gone with Maphale the next day to tell the families the men were missing, rather than reporting the crime.
He said Matlala and Madondo had, on various occasions, tried to defeat the course of justice.
Louw had argued that his client initially refused Maphale’s plans to kill the three men, resulting in a major argument.
But Simelane said that according to a witness’s statement, their disagreement was actually about where the body of the first torture victim was going to be dumped.
Simelane said it was Madondo who had secured the police vehicle used in the crime and between torturing the first victim to death and taking the others to Carletonville, had had a significant amount of time at Springs police station away from Maphale.
Simelane implied that that could have been when the officer could have reported Maphale’s murderous misconduct, but he chose instead to continue with the plot.
The prosecutor was particularly damning of the two police officers, who he claimed had abused their position of trust in the community, and despite Maphale once being given an award for his police work, he and Madondo had been dubbed the “Bad Boys” of the Springs police service.
According to Simelane, it was another informer accompanying the group that night who eventually blew the whistle on the group’s activities, but it was not yet decided whether that man would be made a section 204 State witness, preventing him from being prosecuted.
Simelane argued that the men had already proved they were willing to kill witnesses, and thus it would be a danger to society if they were released on bail.
He also said Matlala and Madondo had asked to be separated from their two co-accused in prison because they feared for their lives. He asked how they would be protected if all four men were eventually released on bail.
Louw argued that the State’s case was not as strong as Simelane had claimed, and it was possible the whistle-blower – whose affidavit is key for the prosecution – had lied to police in an attempt to cover up his part in the murders.
Louw told the court that at the ID parade on Friday, witnesses had failed to point out his client, but mentioned the whistle-blower was also part of the attack. This was what he considered further proof the man was trying to diminish his role in the killings.
Van Heerden and Louw also argued that Simelane had made submissions to the court personally, rather than through witness testimony, specifically about the alleged visiting of the victims’ families, the alleged incidents of defeating the ends of justice and the alleged details of the argument between the group on the night.
Louw insisted the presiding magistrate disregard the arguments entirely.