‘I've lost my love', slain Witness D’s partner weeps as security officials say two possible motives emerge

Leanne McClein, the partner of Witness D to the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, who was murdered in an apparent hit on Friday night, sat sobbing next to a pair of his tekkies on their couch. A pile of wet tissue paper mopped up tears of shock.

Behind her, the family Christmas tree was up – but their festive season had been destroyed by the gunmen who fled into the Brakpan night. A manhunt led by the country's highest security structure, NATJOINTS, is underway.

On Saturday, family and friends allowed the Daily Maverick in, but only for a photograph in the couple's Brenthurst home, a suburb of the industrial and mining East Rand town.

We were let in to witness the aftermath of a hit. McClein had completed a statement for the police after the murder of her husband, 41-year-old Marius ‘Vlam' van der Merwe, who owned a private security company in Brakpan.

Van der Merwe gave testimony before the Commission about the torture and interrogation of a suspect at an unofficial site in Brakpan. He alleged that a group of EMPD officers with private security had been involved in the death of the suspect using methods, including tubing, regarded as torture.

He implicated now-suspended Ekurhuleni metropolitan police chief Julius Mkhwanazi, who has emerged as a kingpin who gave crime mastermind Vusimuzi Cat Matlala access to the EMPD. From this metro police department, Matlala built an empire of influence in police services, both national and sub-national. His testimony was delivered off-site and off-camera, but he was still tracked down.

Read more: Madlanga Commission Witness D's murder forces focus on whistleblower security

McClein could not speak after an initial interview, and her friend gave the media a handwritten note. It read: "Please respect our families privacy. I have lost my love and my children have lost their father. Our country has lost our hero."

The couple's two children were in the car, as was McClein, when they pulled up outside their gate at about 8.30pm on Friday, December 4, according to reports.

The gunmen struck, apparently while they waited for the gate to open. The house is not well-protected; it has palisade fencing and barbed wire, but it is easy to see into the property. There is a single streetlight on the short one-way Gauld Street. A private security guard said the area is generally safe. News24 reported that Justice Minister Mmaloko Kubayi said Witness D had refused witness protection as have other witnesses. The voluntary decision is being reviewed after Van der Merwe’s murder.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the investigation extended beyond Van der Merwe's testimony to the Madlanga Commission and included illegal mining. Van der Merwe’s QRF Task Team company’s website showed it was linked to actions against illicit mining.

The company’s website says: “The business officially opened its doors in June 2023 and was immediately requested to assist on various coal mines in relation to bulk theft of diesel and coal.” (For more, see our earlier report here.

Security officials in the area said Van der Merwe was known as a major mover and shaker in the clean-up of Plastic City, which bordered Brakpan and Benoni (read more here).

In October, Plastic City was razed and cleared. Today, it is a wasteland, with some pickers and the debris of cleared shacks. For years, it was a hotbed of crime and home to illegal miners who created sinkholes by mining the remains of surrounding gold and coal mines, according to reports. There were protests when Plastic City was destroyed by its residents, but the move was welcomed in Ekurhuleni. The hit could also have come from syndicates in Plastic City, security officials speculated.

Neighbours and friends who spoke to the media on condition of anonymity said they believed he was taken out because of his testimony before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.

Van der Merwe was part of the team that questioned the suspect who was allegedly murdered and tortured in April 2022, but he came clean to the Commission. The suspect's body was reportedly dumped in a nearby dam.

The neighbourhood is close-knit, and friends and family arrived and left on Saturday morning. There were 12 bunches of flowers outside Van der Merwe's gate where he was slain – a police tape marked a spot from which a bullet had ricocheted off the gate. DM