Gangster State

information from the police, as it deals with details of the investigation.
Another ‘major twist’ in the matter was that Nokwanda had apparently
refused to cooperate with detectives, reported City Press.
The report was an early indication that the authorities had shifted the
focus of their investigation onto Nokwanda. It would be a probe
fraught with shoddy police work and dubious conduct by some of the
cops involved, and it would culminate in an embarrassing failed
attempt to prosecute a grieving widow and her family.
In late July 2005 , the police made their first move by arresting
Nokwanda’s brother Bongani and her cousin Siphumle. The authorities
stated that Nokwanda was also due to be in custody soon.^14 They
insisted that their investigation showed no sign of a political motive
behind Ngombane’s killing. One can only speculate as to the
thoroughness of the probe that informed this conclusion.
‘We have now ruled out a political motive to this murder due to
overwhelming evidence against the current suspects,’ a SAPS
spokesperson told the media.^15 Police commissioner Jackie Selebi also
weighed in on the matter, affirming the police’s findings and stating
that all the ‘evidence’ pointed to Nokwanda and her family. ‘We have
double-checked and we have triple-checked all the facts,’ Selebi told
the public. ‘The investigation has been thorough.’^16
I spoke to several sources who were in Magashule’s inner circle at the
time. It seems Selebi’s claim could not have been further from the
truth. ‘The police did not make any attempt to determine whether
Noby’s death was linked to the province’s politics,’ one source told me.
‘Given the animosity between Noby and prominent ANC members, all
of us should have been suspects and we should at least have been
questioned. But we weren’t. It would have been easy for the police to