Durban - A close confidante of eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede claimed he and his family were terrorised by Hawks investigators because he refused to implicate her in a political killing.
Mlungisi Ntombela, 52, who is employed as Gumede’s personal adviser, lodged an urgent application with the Durban High Court on Friday, which listed the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele as the first respondent.
The others include a Captain Khumalo and a Constable Ndlovu, who are both members of the National Intervention Unit, a division of the Hawks, and their commander.
In court documents prepared by his legal representative advocate Jay Naidoo, Ntombela asked that the officers be restrained from “threatening, harassing, intimidating” him or his family.
It also requested that the officers refrain from arresting or detaining him without a warrant, and that the order be granted with immediate effect. Presiding Judge Dhaya Pillay granted the interim order. Ntombela advises the mayor on her day to day political and civic duties.
He claimed in his documents that the officers wanted to coerce him into making a statement that the mayor had a hand in the death of uMlazi councillor Sibusiso Maphumulo, who was shot and killed in October 2017.
Councillor Mthokozisi Nojiyeza was arrested for the murder on December 14. On the same day, the Hawks attempted to question Gumede and Ntombela at the mayor’s Durban parlour, but they were not there.
He said he thought the action might be related to factional disputes within the eThekwini region of the ANC, and was a part of a political plot to embarrass the mayor, especially with national elections imminent.
Ntombela said he advised the mayor to contact her legal representatives, but they were unavailable.
He then met advocate Simphiwe Mlotshwa, who was hired to represent the mayor, and briefed him at the Pavilion Shopping Mall on the matter.
During the early hours of February 2, Ntombela said a group of heavily armed Hawks officers barged into his home. Captain Khumalo, who was leading the team, allegedly told him that they were investigating political murders including Maphumulo’s death, and he was being arrested as a suspect.
Ntombela said he was handcuffed even though he denied involvement. He said his home was ransacked even though the policemen didn’t produce a search warrant, and that the ordeal had also traumatised his wife and children. According to Ntombela, his family was not informed that he had been taken to Durban North police station. Ntombela claims he was interrogated for more than eight hours, even though he requested legal representation, which was refused.
He said the investigators told him that they had video footage of his meeting with lawyers at the Pavilion, who were representing Nojiyeza.
They insisted that the mayor was providing legal support to Nojiyeza, and he had knowledge that Maphumulo was murdered because he was in a dispute with the mayor over the awarding of a road construction contract, Ntombela said.
The officers made repeated attempts to get him to sign a statement they had written, but Ntombela said he refused each time. He eventually relented, “out of fear”, when he was told that he would be detained over the weekend, and then remanded for a further seven days, if he didn’t sign.
Ntombela said a few days later he was forced out of a meeting, by the same officers, who took him back to his home for further questioning. There, they claimed that the money in his safe belonged to the mayor, and they also interrogated his wife.
He was detained for the weekend and was refused contact with his family or attorney. Ntombela said he was released without an explanation.
He added that the same heavily armed team of policemen visited the mayoral parlour to question him once again on Monday, but he was not there. On Thursday, Ntombela’s wife was informed that police were camped near his house and, fearing arrest, he did not return home.
“I have been subjected to severe anxiety, humiliation and prejudice through the unlawful conduct of the police, who are yet to provide any solid reason why I should be arrested or detained... I’m forced to live the life of a fugitive,” said Ntombela.
The Hawks did not respond by the time of publication but the matter will return to court on May 3.