By Valeska Abreu, Botho Molosankwe, Angelique Serrao and Sapa
Pretoria - While police were awaiting an autopsy report to determine what killed Major-General Tirhani Maswanganyi, whose body was discovered on Tuesday dumped near Hammanskraal, his colleagues and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) branded his death a hit.
The top cop was found with his hands and feet tied, but police at the crime scene on Tuesday said there were no gunshot wounds to his body.
An angry and heartbroken colleague said he believed Maswanganyi death must have been a hit as there was no other explanation for his killing.
Masenyani Hlongwane, chairman of Popcru in Joburg, agreed. “News of his death shocked and saddened everyone. This was a hit, there is no other explanation and it’s obvious that it was not only one person involved. But all we can do is wait for answers and hope the perpetrators are caught.”
A source in the criminal justice system told Independent Newspapers on Tuesday that Maswanganyi had been working on investigations involving corrupt police officers.
The source said numerous police officers at Joburg Central police station where he was based had been arrested because of Maswanganyi. “You couldn’t find a cleaner cop. He was ruthless about corruption,” the source said. Those in the crime-fighting world believed his murder was a hit, the source said.
Maswanganyi’s body was found on Tuesday morning, just 10km from his house, in a field along the R101 in Rooiwal, close to Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria.
The police’s canine unit discovered his body a few metres from his abandoned Isuzu bakkie.
Police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila said Maswanganyi had left his home at about 2pm on Monday and was on his way back to Joburg, where he lived during the week to be closer to work.
“Police started searching for him after they found his car, unlocked with his uniform and appointment certificate inside, at about 6pm on Monday. He did not have a service pistol because he was office bound. His body was discovered at about 3am this morning (on Tuesday),” said Malila.
A Pretoria News crew on Tuesday visited Maswanganyi’s home on a smallholding that houses a number of cows and other farm animals. His colleagues and family members were seen arriving to comfort Maswanganyi’s grieving widow, but was told that the family were not ready to speak to the media.
“We have to wait for our elders, including his (Maswanganyi’s) mother. This is in respect of our culture and tradition,” a man believed to be Maswanganyi’s brother said.
Malila said the cause of death was unknown but confirmed that Maswanganyi’s body did not have any visible gunshot wounds.
“At this stage from what we can deduce it looks like suffocation.”
Malila said police could also not confirm or deny if the general had been assaulted.
“There was a little blood on the scene but that can be from a nose bleed or something like that.”
Gauteng commissioner Lieutenant-General Mzwandile Petros announced on Tuesday that a multi-departmental team of investigators would investigate the death.
“I have assembled a team of detectives under the leadership of the deputy provincial commissioner for detective services, Major-General Tebello Mosikili, and investigators from the provincial investigation unit and organised crime unit to investigate the murder,” Petros said.
Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said Maswanganyi’s death was “a senseless blow to Gauteng’s war against crime’’.
“In the memory of Major-General Maswanganyi, all of us law-abiding citizens should take up the cudgels and say: ‘We will not be cowed into submission by criminals. We will honour Maswanganyi by making sure that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are swiftly brought to book’,” she said.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said Maswanganyi’s death was a loss to South Africa.
“The SAPS is poorer. The Gauteng provincial team is poorer. The people of Johannesburg are poorer. The people of Gauteng and of the entire South Africa are poorer.”
The minister condemned the killing of police officers.
“We have emphasised the point before that policing remains a very difficult and challenging duty… Daily our members face dangerous and vicious criminals who will not hesitate to kill them.
“One policeman’s life lost is one too many. Enough is enough,” Mthethwa said.
DA Gauteng spokeswoman on community safety Kate Lorimer sent condolences to Maswanganyi’s family and friends and asked that the public help find his killers. “By all accounts he was a dedicated policeman who keenly felt the need to make a difference in the fight against crime,” she said.
Pretoria News