Durban - Police made a grisly discovery this week when they found one of their own buried in a shallow grave in a rural area outside Durban.
Thabo Mlotshwa, 32, a constable with the National Intervention Unit, had been shot several times, police spokesman Thulani Zwane said.
A police source said Mlotshwa was lured to Mpola, near Mariannhill, by a known hijacker, pretending to be a woman, and ambushed by several men.
It has been claimed that the officer and the hijacker were in a relationship with the same woman.
Mlotshwa was shot in the knee and the head and stripped to his underclothes. His body was wrapped in plastic and placed in a knee-deep grave.
The source said he was also shot after he was already dead. Zwane said Mlotshwa went missing last Friday night.
Police believe those who killed him also stole his car and other items including his wallet, cellphones and service pistol.
His body was found on Wednesday, not far from where he was shot.
Four people, one a minor, have been arrested in connection with Mlotshwa’s death.
“They have been charged with murder and armed robbery,” Zwane said on Thursday.
They are expected to appear in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
A colleague of Mlotshwa, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said:
“He was a very dedicated officer and he loved his work.”
Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, said Mlotshwa had been a “productive policeman” and called those responsible for his death “thugs”.
The Mercury