The case against the 12 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members arrested for the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Ngwako Frans Mathipa was postponed in the Randburg Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 23 June.
The 12 were arrested on Sunday and Monday. After authorities apprehended two suspects on Sunday, 10 SANDF members handed themselves over to police on Monday morning.
The arrests of the initial two suspects were conducted by units from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, better known as the Hawks, where Mathipa worked before he was shot on 6 August 2023 while driving on the N1 highway near the Hammanskraal off-ramp.
The two suspects, aged 36 and 51, were arrested in Centurion and at OR Tambo International Airport. The media cannot name the suspects until they plead to the charges; the ages of the additional 10 accused were not disclosed.
In addition to Mathipa’s murder, police say the 12 suspects are linked to a case of kidnapping two foreign nationals at a mall in Midrand on 29 December 2022. In relation to that event, they face charges of murder, fraud and kidnapping.
Investigators impounded a vehicle owned by the 36-year-old suspect, believed to have been used in the kidnapping of the two foreign nationals.
“During the operation, police also seized a vehicle belonging to the 36-year-old suspect. The vehicle is alleged to have been used in the kidnapping of two male foreign nationals at a mall in Midrand on 29 December 2022. It has since been impounded for further forensic investigation,” SAPS said in a statement on Sunday.
State to oppose bail
Speaking to the media outside the Randburg Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Singo said the 10 suspects were arrested upon handing themselves over on Monday morning.
“On Sunday, we arrested two suspects in Centurion and at OR Tambo International Airport. The other 10 suspects handed themselves over to our investigating officers in Johannesburg,” he said.
“After they handed themselves over, we arrested them and charged them and brought them to court together with the two who were arrested yesterday,” Singo said.
Singo said investigations were still under way. He did not say whether the Hawks expected to make more arrests in the case.
“At the moment, we cannot reveal the identities of the accused as per the court’s instruction and because some aspects of the investigation are still ongoing,” Singo said.
He said the accused would be expected to apply for bail during their next court appearance, which the State would oppose.
Too close to the truth
At the time of his murder, Mathipa was investigating the kidnapping of alleged Isis associate Abdella Hussein Abadiga and his bodyguard Kadir Jemal Abotese from the Mall of Africa in Midrand, Johannesburg, on 29 December 2022.
In a three-part investigation, non-profit investigative outfit Open Secrets outlined evidence linking the SANDF’s 5 Special Forces Regiment to the abduction of Abadiga and his bodyguard.
They reported on footage of luxury vehicles registered to a Special Forces front company that were at the mall at the same time as Abadiga, whose car left the mall only hours after he paid for his parking ticket, closely followed by one of the vehicles linked to the Special Forces.
Read more: Russian Doll — an assassination, abductions and the mystery of the Lady R
The SANDF first denied that its members were at the mall before later claiming in court that they had been conducting a training exercise.
Mathipa filed a court application in July 2023 to obtain the communications records of SANDF personnel present at the Mall of Africa on the day the abductions took place. His subpoena was approved.
But, according to Open Secrets, the SANDF let the 23 July court-ordered deadline lapse because, by then, negotiations were under way between Mathipa, the NPA and SANDF officials to broker access to the requested information.
Read more: A Russian Doll, Part Two — Who assassinated Frans Mathipa and how is the SANDF involved?
According to a report, Mathipa was about to meet a group of men, possibly the suspects, near the Hammanskraal off-ramp when he was shot. The police have said he was “on duty conducting an investigation at the time of his death”.
Mathipa, a member of the Hawks’ Crimes Against the State Unit, was hailed as a dedicated police officer with vast professional experience. He lived in Soshanguve in Tshwane and originally hailed from the village of Lebotloane in North West.
The case against the dozen SANDF members was postponed to 1 July 2025 for further investigations. DM