Cops above the law

Say it with a sting.....

11 June 2009
Alfred Moselakgomo - alfredm@sowetan.co.za


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ICD orders identity parade of the six
FOUR months after allegedly beating the suspect to death, six police officers will finally face the wrath of the law.





This comes after the independent complaints directorate (ICD) ordered that an identity parade be conducted to point out the implicated police officers .

The officers, who are based at the Middleburg police station in Mpumalanga, allegedly tortured Abram Moraba to death on February 21 after accusing him of having an illegal gun.


Moraba’s family was outraged when the police officers implicated in the beating were not charged.


Last week the family approached Sowetan to intervene and after our report the ICD sprung into action.


“We have ordered the six police officers involved to appear before us and the identity parade will be held this week,” ICD spokesperson Tiyani Sambo said.



“All witnesses, including Moraba’s wife, have been invited to the parade to identify the suspects,” he said.


Sambo could not tell why it took so long to investigate or charge those involved though Moraba’s wife told them that she knew the killers .




Mahlangu says her 50-year- old husband, a traditional healer from Mhluzi in Middleburg, was dragged from his home in handcuffs and paraded in the street while the cops beat him up.

She says police had stormed into their house and accused her husband of having an illegal firearm and demanded that he should produce it.


“They kicked the door down and without saying anything started assaulting him.”



She says when her husband insisted that he did not have a gun, they handcuffed him, loaded him on to a bakkie and drove away with him.


Mahlangu says before he was taken to the police cells, Moraba was coughing up froth and his head was so swollen that his face was no longer recognisable.

She says the following day when she went to the police station to check on her husband she was told that he was not there.

“Later that evening two detectives, one of whom I knew, came to tell me that my husband had died,” she says.


Reacting to the turn of events, Mahlangu says: “Finally there is hope that my husband’s killers will get what they deserve.”

Sowetan News

Comments by Sonny

Some cops and reservists think that they are above the law!