Love triangle in VIP guard’s death?

Constable Sello Machete was sitting with his girlfriend, Koketso Maleka, in his unmarked police vehicle when they were shot multiple times. Photo: Bongani Shilubane

Constable Sello Machete was sitting with his girlfriend, Koketso Maleka, in his unmarked police vehicle when they were shot multiple times. Photo: Bongani Shilubane

Published Jul 7, 2015

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Pretoria - One of the three men accused of killing Constable Sello Machete claims to have been involved with the woman the officer was with when he was murdered.

Patrick Vasco Gamba, 30, David Tshepo Mukhari, 26, and and his younger brother George Mpho Mukhari, 23, are suspected of killing Machete during an armed robbery in Hammanskraal. They appeared in the Temba Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

On the night of June 9, Machete was sitting with his girlfriend, Koketso Maleka, in his unmarked police vehicle when they were shot multiple times.

Machete died on the scene while Maleka suffered head injuries.

The trio face charges of murder, attempted murder, and robbery with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

In his affidavit, read out in court by his attorney Naledi Ramahlatsi, David Mukhari pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

He said he was at home on the night of the incident and had asked his brother, George, to go and pick up Maleka at her parents’ house in the same area.

“Koketso and David were dating for two months. I asked George to go and fetch her at her parents’ house. When he got there he found that she had been shot. He then took her and her father to the hospital,” David Mukhari’s affidavit read.

The 26-year-old said police later questioned him about the incident and he was arrested on June 24.

He claimed he was assaulted by officers who allegedly also threatened to kill him. “They forced me to make an admission. When I refused, one of the officers said ‘let’s shoot this dog and dump his body in the river’ but they were distracted when one of them received a call,” he said.

The torture continued and he was beaten until he lost consciousness, he added.

Ramahlatsi also read George Mukhari’s affidavit.

He too claimed that he was tortured and forced to make an informal plea. “The police forced me to lie on my stomach and handcuffed my hands behind me while my legs were forced underneath my handcuffed hands. They punched, kicked, and strangled me, and forced me say that David hired hit men to kill Sello, which I did. But I was forced to make the plea,” he told the court.

In his affidavit, George claimed he did not have any quarrels with Machete and only knew him as they played soccer together. “I wasn’t aware that he was dating Koketso, and I never had a quarrel with him before,” the 23-year-old said.

The matter was postponed to July 15 before Sergeant Lesiba Lamola could testify in the bail hearing. The trio were remanded in custody.

Machete was a member of the VIP unit protecting Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan.

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