An IPID investigator in the case against suspended EMPD deputy chief Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi and five co-accused told the court that a police informant, Wiandre Pretorius, took his own life after learning that DNA evidence placed him in the bedroom where Emmanuel Mbense was killed.
She revealed this on Tuesday afternoon at the Brakpan Magistrates’ Court where the accused were applying for bail.
IPID senior investigator Nomsa Masuku was testifying after the state reopened its bail application against the six accused.
The case dates back to April 2022, when Mbense was allegedly tortured and killed at his Brakpan home before his body was dumped in Spaarwater Dam in Duduza, near Nigel.
State prosecutor Nceba Ntelwa told the court that civilian accused Cobus Janse van Rensburg had provided information to his co-accused that Mbense was the owner of one of two trucks allegedly used in a warehouse robbery on April 14, 2022.
The robbers allegedly used two trucks and a bakkie to load a large quantity of copper from the warehouse.
IPID investigator details DNA evidence
Masuku testified that Mbense was assaulted for about five hours during the attack before he was killed.
The circumstances surrounding Mbense’s death later featured prominently at the Madlanga Commission, where evidence was presented about an alleged cover-up.
Marius van der Merwe, a security company owner who testified before the commission as Witness D, alleged that Mbense had been tortured before his death and that he was later instructed to help dispose of the body.
Van der Merwe also alleged that Mkhwanazi was called to the scene after Mbense was killed and instructed people there to dispose of the body at a mine dump or in a river.
Van der Merwe named Pretorius as one of the people allegedly present at Mbense’s home when SAPS, EMPD and private security officers allegedly robbed, tortured and killed Mbense.
Pretorius was a person of interest in the investigation
Pretorius, 41, was a police informant and became a person of interest in the investigation into Mbense’s death.
Masuku told the court that she had encountered Pretorius at crime scenes involving shootings between suspects and SAPS members. She said she initially believed he was a police officer because he was widely regarded as one by police officers, although he did not wear a uniform.
Her first direct interaction with him was when he was summoned to her office to provide a statement in another matter.
Masuku said she realised then that Pretorius was not a police officer.
Pretorius was also linked to former police officer Juan-Maree Eksteen, who is now accused number six in the Mbense case.
Van der Merwe gave evidence before the Madlanga Commission in November 2025.
Masuku told the court that she had been in contact with him during his testimony and remembered him giving evidence on November 13.
On December 5, 2025, Van der Merwe was shot dead outside his Brakpan home, weeks after appearing before the commission.
Pretorius was investigated after Van der Merwe’s murder
Masuku said Pretorius was the first person of interest questioned by SAPS after Van der Merwe’s murder. She said IPID was also investigating Pretorius in connection with the killing.
Days before his death, Pretorius survived an apparent assassination attempt outside his home in Boksburg.
On February 7, 2026, Pretorius died by suicide at a petrol station in Brakpan, east of Johannesburg.
Masuku said IPID investigators attended the scene after being informed that Pretorius had shot himself.
Although the death itself was an SAPS matter, she said IPID attended because Pretorius was a suspect in the Mbense investigation.
She said Pretorius was being investigated in both the Mbense matter and the killing of Van der Merwe.
Masuku said IPID had completed its investigation into Mbense’s death and submitted its recommendation and the full case docket to SAPS and EMPD because members of both services, as well as private security personnel, were implicated.
She said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had not yet made a final decision on the case.
Investigators recovered DNA from the bedroom
According to Masuku, the docket contained a DNA report based on buccal samples taken from the suspects and compared with samples collected at Mbense’s home in 2022.
She told the court that Pretorius’s DNA allegedly matched a sample recovered from the bedroom where Mbense was killed.
Masuku said investigators also had physical evidence from inside the house that allegedly placed Pretorius at the scene.
She said investigators were informed that Pretorius had seen the DNA report before his death and that this may have been one of the reasons he took his own life.
“Now, when he killed himself, we were informed that one of the reasons he killedhimself, it’s because he had seen the document, which is a DNA report, that wasputting him inside, not really inside, in the bedroom where the deceased was.”
Masuku said the evidence from Mbense’s home was supported by material contained in Van der Merwe’s docket, making it difficult for Pretorius to challenge the findings.
Eksteen may have provided access to the case docket
She further alleged that Pretorius may have obtained a copy of the DNA report through Eksteen.
Eksteen, a former SAPS member, had access to the case docket because a copy had been submitted to SAPS, Masuku said.
“The reason he might have got copies of the case is because … his partner was charged, his partner was an SAPS member, and then the copies were submitted to SAPS because of his partner. So it’s possible that he might have got that information from that document,” Masuku said.
Mkhwanazi is appearing alongside former EMPD officer Keisha-Leigh Stols, EMPD officer Adrian Mackenzie, SAPS officer Bhekokwakhe Sibande, Janse van Rensburg and Eksteen.
The state has classified the case as a Schedule 6 offence and is opposing bail for all six accused.
They must demonstrate exceptional circumstances to justify their release on bail.
The bail hearing continues.
simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za
IOL News
