The Randburg Magistrate’s Court in Johannesburg is set to hear the bail application of 12 members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) implicated in the brutal murder of Lieutenant Colonel Frans Mathipa – a specialist investigator at the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks.
The 12 SANDF members are facing serious charges of murder and kidnapping after Mathipa was shot dead while travelling on the N1 near Hammanskraal in August 2023.
The accused SANDF members were arrested in June.
IOL previously reported that some of the soldiers were arrested at different places, including the OR Tambo International Airport and Centurion in Tshwane.
Following the arrests, spokesperson for the Hawks, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Singo, stated that the arrests were carried out by members of the Johannesburg-based Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation, the headquarters’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation, and the Tactical Operations Management Section (Toms).
“The arrests are linked to the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Frans Mathipa, who was fatally shot while driving on the N1 highway near Hammanskraal on August 6, 2023. Following the shooting, his vehicle lost control and veered into a ditch,” Singo said.
Mathipa, who was attached to the Hawks’ Crimes Against the State Unit within the Serious Organised Crime Investigation in Gauteng, was on duty conducting an investigation at the time of his death.
Singo said a vehicle seized has also been linked to a separate crime.
“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 December 29, 2022. It has since been impounded for further forensic investigation,” Singo said.
According to reports, at the time of his death, Mathipa was probing allegations that members of the SANDF Special Forces unit abducted an Ethiopian businessman and suspected ISIS leader from the Mall of Africa in Midrand in 2022.
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
IOL News
