Parliament - Police top brass have admitted they were caught off guard by the “cover-up” of the police killing of Khulekani Mpanza, a suspected robber who was gunned down in Krugersdorp last month.
This was revealed on Wednesday during a briefing of Parliament’s police committee, as the furore around what appears to be yet another incident of police brutality reached the National Assembly.
As the outrage around Mpanza’s murder heightened, it also emerged that the Krugersdorp station commissioner has now been slapped with a notice of intention to suspend him.
He was issued with the notice because he had not informed his superiors about the details of the killing. This step was part of a wider misconduct probe.
“We consider it serious that the station commander has covered up and did not take action,” acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane said, adding that accountability throughout the ranks was not just academic.
Read: Mpanza shot at cops – dividing public opinion
Following MPs’ questions, Phahlane said a death was reported, but that the details were not known until the Sunday Times published the photos on its front page.
“What was not made visible to us was the cover-up,” Phahlane said, adding later it was only after the publication that details of “what boils down to an execution” emerged.
On Sunday, the newspaper published a sequence of photographs pulled off CCTV video, which showed Mpanza lying already injured on the pavement without a firearm before one police official kicks him and another policeman shoots him dead.
This happened after Mpanza allegedly tried to rob a store and shot at police officers before fleeing.
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undefinedThe police and the police watchdog, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), also confirmed to MPs that they had started the investigation before the incident was reported on at the weekend.
Phahlane said the information given by the four implicated officers to their bosses was different from the actual killing of Mpanza almost three weeks ago. He said what was reported by the police officers’ superiors was different from the offence that took place.
Only after the viewing of the video were the police and Ipid convinced that it was an execution.
“What was reported is the opposite of what happened. What was reported is a cover-up. We need to look at where was the lapse (of the police regulations),” Phahlane said.
“Yes, we know that in pursuing someone, members would have shot someone. But we did not have the details that this was an execution,” he told MPs.
The officers breached the regulations in finishing off the suspect.
Phahlane assured Parliament that action would be taken against those responsible. “There is a saying that goes ‘no stone will be left unturned’. We will look at all the angles in this matter,” he said.
The killing happened on October 19, but the four police officers allegedly involved were suspended only on Monday. This lapse was described as “unfortunate” by police committee chairman Francois Beukman.
On Monday, three of the four arrested officers, constables Titus Mabela, 30, and Jason Segole, 34, and Sergeant Puleng Sebetwa, 38, were charged with defeating the ends of justice and murder for their alleged involvement in Mpanza’s murder. The fourth suspect, Constable Dipuo Chipu, 39, was charged with defeating the ends of justice because she didn’t play a role in the execution of Mpanza, according to Ipid spokeswoman Grace Langa.
Mabela, Segole and Sebetwa remain in custody pending a bail application hearing.
Phahlane assured MPs that the police officers would have to account for their actions.
Political Bureau