Joburg can provide extra protection, says mayor after investigator’s murder

When you create discomfort in a criminal environment there are implications, says Kabelo Gwamanda

Ernest Mabuza Journalist
The family of slain forensic investigator Benedict Zenzele Sithole during a visit by Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda on Tuesday.
The family of slain forensic investigator Benedict Zenzele Sithole during a visit by Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda on Tuesday.
Image: Ernest Mabuza

Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda says the city will provide an additional layer of protection for investigators in the city’s Group Forensics and Investigation Services (GFIS) unit should there be a need. 

Gwamanda said this on Tuesday after he visited the home of forensic investigator Zenzele Benedict Sithole, who was shot dead in Johannesburg while returning home on Thursday. 

There had been suggestions that Sithole, who was attached to the GFIS unit, was assassinated. 

When asked after visiting Sithole’s house in Brackenhurst in Ekurhuleni whether he was concerned about the safety of fellow forensic investigators attached to the unit, Gwamanda said it was a concern. 

“When you undertake a programme to create discomfort in a criminal environment, there has to be a concern with the implications.” 

He said for the many operations the GFIS unit undertook they had to have the backing of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) and the police because some of the unit’s functions need that support. 


“It is a concern for all our investigators. That is why we have, together with the MMC of public safety, engaged on how to assist the kind of investigations that are under way and, if there is an additional level of protection required for our officials, then we need to provide it.” 

When asked if there was any protection provided for Sithole’s family, Gwamanda said the city was waiting for the police to get an understanding of the circumstances surrounding Sithole’s death. 

“Then we as the city will be able to implement whichever response is required. The group forensic and investigations is doing a threat assessment as well,” Gwamanda said.

“We can only get authorisation to deploy once that information has been provided in full by the police.”


Gwamanda said Sithole came to the city around 2017 and was a former member of the Hawks. He said his unit undertook a wide variety of special projects, including investigating hijacked buildings.

Gwamanda earlier visited the grieving Sithole family and offered condolences. He promised the city would support the family with whatever they needed to bury their loved one. 

“You are not alone. We are here as the City of Johannesburg in your time of grief. We grieve with you.” 

Sibongile Mlambo, Sithole’s sister, told the mayor that the family was grieving and still in shock. 

“Right now we came back with a plastic bag full of his bloodied clothes.” 

Her family’s concern is that it cannot find a place to bury her brother as his wish was to be buried at a cemetery in Nasrec, but the family was told there was no space. 

“He was killed like a dog. He left his wife, hardly three months after they were married, he left his children,” Mlambo said. 

TimesLIVE 


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