Durban - The latest victim of hostel violence was never offered witness protection by police, and police statements that he had turned down their offer to hide him from his killers are a lie, say violence monitors Mary de Haas and Vanessa Burger.
Sipho Ndovela, a former resident of Glebelands hostel, went to court on Monday under police guard for a case where he was to appear as a witness.
He was also scheduled to appear, separately, as a key witness in another case where his friend, Fikile Siyephu, was shot dead at the hostel in March. Ndovela had escaped with a bullet to the leg.
After his court appearance, provincial police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, said Ndovela was told not to leave the building without his police escort. When he was shot he was phoning the escorts to tell them he was finished, a witness said.
Zwane said Ndovela was not in the witness protection programme.
However, on Tuesday, another senior police officer, Colonel Jay Naicker, said Ndovela had turned down an offer to go into the programme - a claim Burger said was untrue.
“He was never offered one. We (with violence monitor Mary de Haas) have been raising the security issue of witnesses to Glebelands murder cases, but the concerns have been ignored until after Monday’s assassination. We have written a letter to the police and forwarded it to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) raising a number of issues.
“Police never responded to that letter and Ipid recommended that the matter be looked into by the provincial police bosses,” said Burger on Thursday.
She said she or De Haas would have known about the offer of witness protection as they had been raising the security issue on behalf of the witnesses.
De Haas was shocked by Naicker’s comment.
“What Naicker said is not true. It’s sickening when people keep on feeding the public with lies. I have a reference number for the letter we sent to them (police) where we listed our concerns and Ipid did the right thing by referring the matter back to the provincial police,” De Haas said.
Ipid spokesman, Moses Dlamini, confirmed receipt of the letter. He said the letter was about a range of issues, some relevant to Ipid and some not.
“The authors were advised to report all the issues that fell outside of our mandate to the secretariat of the police. Affidavits were requested in relation to new matters that might fall within our mandate,” Dlamini said.
After Ndovela’s death, the police have put another witness in yet another murder case at the hostel, under the witness protection programme, Burger said.
Asked about the two conflicting statements by police, Naicker said: “We stand by our investigators who spoke to the deceased personally and reported that he refused to enrol on to the witness protection programme. He also did not comply with his police escort request not to leave the court after he was done appearing.”
He said the police would not comment on statements by those who aligned themselves with individuals in the hostel. Naicker said he was unaware of the letter.
Dr Johan Burger, of the Institute for Security Studies, said the court killing painted a “scary picture” of the lack of ability by the police to protect witnesses. “Witnesses will lose trust in the police and they will be reluctant to come forward to testify,” he said.
Provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, said police investigations into the hostel crisis would reveal who was behind the violence and if police were involved.
“In light of the uMlazi court killing we have approached other witnesses and firmly advised them to enrol in the witness protection programme. They are co-operating,” she said.
Meanwhile, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is concerned about the increasing number of assassinations at Glebelands hostel,the party said on Friday.
“The growing number of people that are being killed at the Glebelands hostel is a major cause for concern and requires tough action from law enforcement agencies,” ANC provincial secretary, Sihle Zikalala said in a statement.
“The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal notes with sadness the news of Sphamandla Hlongwane’s murder. This is worrying, especially as it comes hot on the heels of another cold-blooded murder of Sipho Ndovela who was also killed earlier this week in full view of the public at the Umlazi Magistrate’s Court. Ndovela was one of the key witnesses in the case involving the killing of some people at the hostel.”
* Another man was murdered at Glebelands on Wednesday.
Daily News and ANA