The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) wishes to advise that we are investigating two incidents of death involving SAPS Vaalbank in Mpumalanga (former Kwandebele).

The first incident which claimed the life of James Johannes Malobola (23) occurred on 15 December 2005 in Allenmans drift in Mpumalanga, the deceased died on 30 December 2005 at Mamethlake Hospital. It is alleged that members from SAPS Vaalbank went to Mr Malobola’s house to arrest him for the contravention of a protection order against his girlfriend. On arrival at the said house allegedly the police were informed by the mother that the deceased (his son) is mentally unstable, the police continued on their mission and tried to arrest him. It is alleged that the deceased resisted arrest and the police started assaulting him and he was subsequently overpowered and handcuffed. It is further alleged that the police used a sharp steel bar in stabbing him severely all over his body (legs, head and hands) while handcuffed.

The ICD took over the investigation on 31 December 2005, we have since discovered that the family was not informed about the death of their son. The family only realised of the death after our investigators visited them accordingly. We will also be investigating the complaint from the family on failure of the police to inform them about the death. Three police officers who arrested the deceased will be charged with murder.

The second incident which claimed the life of William Matikenesi Sekgobela (34) occurred on 02 January 2006 in Allenmans drift in Mpumalanga. It is alleged that members from SAPS Vaalbank went to Mr Sekgobela’s house to arrest him for a case of assault with intend to do grievous bodily harm against his girlfriend. On arrival at the said house allegedly the deceased started running away. The police pursued him and fired one shot which struck him on the body, under his right hand. He was taken to the Siyabuswa Clinic and died at the casualty section.

We took over the investigation on 02 January 2006, a police officer will be charged with murder.

Both postmortems were conducted on Tuesday, 03 January 2006 at Witbank Government Mortuary.

After finalization of our investigation we will forward both case dockets to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a decision on prosecution.

As the ICD we would not tolerate any involvement of police officers in criminality. The police are there to protect and secure, not abuse their power and brutalize human beings.