Despite the disappointing failure to nab the killers of former Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper, Senzo Meyiwa, Police Minister Bheki Cele says he is satisfied with the investigation.
Meyiwa was killed in October 2014 while visiting his then-girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo, in Vosloorus in Gauteng.
It was alleged that a robber stormed the house of the Khumalos and killed him during a fatal robbery but the version of those who were in the house has been vehemently questioned and shredded by the public and crime experts.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the ongoing Popcru congress (Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union) on Wednesday, Cele admitted that the case has dragged for a long time and that the killers should be behind bars by now.
He said “a lot has been done behind the scenes on this matter” as last week he and the Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola and NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) head, Advocate Shamila Batohi, met to discuss it - but he did not divulge the details of the discussions.
“I will say this time and again, it has been a long time, by now we should have found the results, I am on the matter for a year. I must say it sounds awkward when I simply say I find it satisfying to me that we are going somewhere,” Cele said.
Furthermore, Cele said even the Meyiwa family confirms that it is satisfied with the work of the people working on the matter but they raised other issues.
“I am simply saying to you, the team that has been working up to this point (is) satisfied (as well) and I believe that if we follow the investigation by the team that has worked very closely, by the way, with the family of Senzo. Colonel Ginindza and Colonel Buthelezi have worked very closely, especially from the side of Colonel Buthelezi, hence the family can simply say they are satisfied with the work of the police and I must say I am satisfied with that work but remember, the justice system is a chain,” he said.
Cele berated AfriForum, the organisation that has since stepped in to help investigate the matter, saying its assertion that they were taking up the case to “embarrass the justice system was a very telling statement''. He said they were working to solve the matter and not to embarrass anyone.
He described the Senzo Meyiwa case as a “national pain” hence he maintains that they don’t want to use it to embarrass anybody.
Cornered about the safety of KZN whistleblower Thabiso Zulu, a friend of slain former ANC youth league leader Sindiso Magaqa, who two weeks ago survived an assassination attempt, Cele first denied claims by Zulu that President Cyril Ramaphosa committed to help him with security.
“That’s not true. That one is not true and I am not going to tell you who says what in this one,” Cele emphatically said.
He then stood by his department’s decision to take for a judiciary review the recommendations by Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, that the SAPS must provide security to Zulu.
He said there is no law that compels the police force to provide security to private citizens and stressed that they only assess threats as the Crime Intelligence division of the SAPS has done together with the department of state security on Zulu.
He then passed the responsibility to the department of justice which two weeks ago told Independent Media that the matter falls under the NPA. The NPA in KZN said Zulu is not a witness in the highly sensitive Magaqa case which has made him enemies and put his life in danger.