By Simon Nare
Former KwaZulu-Natal Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) investigator Sharmila Williams has disputed the Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit’s version that it shot taxi operators in self-defence.
Williams told the Nkabinde Inquiry, probing the fitness of South Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andrew Chauke to hold office, that her investigations into crime scenes involving unit members told a different story.
She told the inquiry, chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Elizabeth Nkabinde, that in one of the scenes she attended, evidence showed unit members were not under threat as claimed in their statements.
In the incident in which taxi operator Bongani Mkhize was shot while seated in his car, Williams said unit members were allegedly stealing the deceased’s personal belongings.
She said she intervened and took the items from the officers.
Williams testified that it was irregular for an officer involved in a shooting to remain at the scene and remove items, as such an officer is treated as a suspect at that stage.
“The scene is still being processed, which means he has to be away from the scene so that inspection can take place and evidence can be collected. He is not allowed to be present. I do not know why they were on the scene,” she said.
Williams said she was initially denied access to the scene by the officer in charge, who mistook her for a journalist.
Evidence leader Advocate Tshidiso Ramogale asked what the panel should infer from the presence of officers involved in the shooting at the scene.
“I don’t know how to put this. I don’t know what they were doing on the scene. I don’t know if they were planting evidence. What I do know from my encounter with them is that they were stealing from the boot of Mr Mkhize’s vehicle. They were committing a further crime by taking personal items belonging to the deceased,” she said.
Williams said she was alerted by a person identified as Miss Gibson, who reported seeing officers removing items from the boot of the vehicle.
It was unclear whether Gibson was a police officer or a civilian.
Williams said Gibson stopped the officers and called her to the scene.
The items allegedly taken included money. Williams said that under normal procedure, if officers remove cash from a crime scene, it must be recorded in an inventory.
Her testimony about alleged crime scene tampering is consistent with evidence from other witnesses who have testified about how officers attached to the Cato Manor unit shot taxi operators linked to the Maphumulo Taxi Association.
Several witnesses, including former KwaZulu-Natal Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Moipone Noko, have testified that unit members would hunt down taxi operators, shoot them and claim self-defence.
The inquiry has also heard allegations that unit members were hired by a rival taxi association in Stanger and paid R10,000 per killing.
The officers were allegedly rewarded by the police service for quelling taxi violence in the area.
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