possibility of suing the state for wrongful prosecution, and she wanted
the records for this purpose. But her efforts would be fruitless. She
showed me emails from Department of Justice officials claiming that
the inquiry file had ‘disappeared’.
I went to the Magistrate’s Court in September 2018 to try to retrieve
the documents, but had no better luck. A court official in the records
department told me that plenty of people had come looking for the file
before me, and that it was indeed missing.
When I asked how it was possible that the court could lose such
important documents, the official simply shrugged. Then he told me
something even more concerning. Officials from the Hawks had come
to the court in early 2018 to draw the file. When they too were told that
it had gone missing, one of the Hawks told the court official that the
police case file had also disappeared.
The matter was originally registered at Bloemfontein’s Bayswater
Police Station under case number 116 - 03 - 05. When the Hawks went to
retrieve the file from the Bayswater station, they found that it contained
documents from a completely unrelated case. Someone had clearly
replaced Ngombane’s case records with those of another matter.
I managed to corroborate what the court official was told with sources
in the Hawks: the records from the 2008 inquiry are gone; so too is the
case file opened by the SAPS after the murder in early 2005.
This does not mean that those behind Ngombane’s untimely death will
never be apprehended. The mysterious NIA agent is still out there. It is
also possible that the hitman or his getaway driver, or both, are still
alive and well. A proper police investigation, unhampered by any
meddling, may yet uncover the truth about a murder that has the
markings of a top-level political hit.
nora
(Nora)
#1