ID parade in murder case on hold

File picture: Independent Media

File picture: Independent Media

Published May 28, 2015

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Johannesburg - The bail application of two police officers and two informants accused of killing three murder suspects has stalled because the ID parade set to take place on Wednesday was aborted.

The four accused - police officers Floyd Mpho Matlala and Nkopodi Maphale, and informants Clement Madondo and Lwazi Ndlangamandla - appeared on Wednesday in the Oberholzer Magistrate’s Court in Carletonville.

An ID parade to identify the four accused by State witnesses was set to take place on Wednesday morning, but the court heard that Maphale and Ndlangamandla objected to the pointing out because they had no legal representation.

Investigators accepted this, but the court insisted the parade continue on Friday so that the bail proceedings can continue on Tuesday.

On April 17, Madondo and Maphale were accompanied by informers Matlala and Ndlangamandla to Duduza near Springs, where they questioned four murder suspects for a case they were investigating. The officers and their informers allegedly killed three of them, dumping their bodies in the veld.

A senior Independent Police Investigative Directorate investigator, Phumlani Ncobo, last week said Matlala, Maphale and Ndlangamandla detained the four men and later met Madondo at Springs police station.

He said the three allegedly tortured the four suspects until one apparently died and took them to the veld in Duduza. They then took the dead man to Pholosong Hospital in Tsakane.

Two of the victims were allegedly put in the boot of one of the VW Polos the officers were driving, and two, including the dead man, were placed on the back seat.

The man was declared dead at the hospital.

The accused and the informers then allegedly wheeled the dead man back to the vehicle and devised a plan to silence the three remaining victims to hide their crime, according to prosecutor Victor Simelane.

The accused used a case that Madondo was working on in Carletonville as an excuse to drive to the area, where they allegedly dumped the first victim’s body, the court heard.

It is understood that Matlala and Madondo are going to blame Maphale for the murder plot and opening fire on the suspects, and will argue they did not report the crime because they feared for their lives.

On Wednesday, Ndlangamandla told the court that the witnesses who were set to participate in the ID parade were in court, meaning they had already seen the faces of the accused. He then requested that the ID parade take place in the prison where they are being held instead of at Khutsong police station.

The presiding magistrate said he was not aware of any of the witnesses in the courtroom and that the facilities at the police station were adequate to host the parade.

He denied the request.

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The Star

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