SOWETAN | Police need more like Mongwe

Police Sgt Evans Butso Mongwe is bullish when he talks about his eight-year investigation into the murder of prominent businessman Wandile Bozwana in 2015. 

Bozwana was shot and killed while driving along Garsfontein Road in Pretoria while travelling with business associate, Mpho Baloyi, who survived the attack. 

Like a dog with a bone, Mongwe refused to let go, even in the face of what he says were threats, intimidation and sabotage, at times from his own colleagues in the police. 

Last week his efforts paid off when Pretoria taxi boss Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela and his co-accused were sentenced to 30 years for the murder. 

Mathibela, once a notorious leader of an extortion gang that terrorised the capital city, appeared to have had a series of inexplicable events around his case which, had they gone unchallenged, would have shielded him from accountability. 

Mongwe alleges that at some point crucial evidence went missing from the docket, instability in the management of the case caused unnecessary setbacks, which made investigators appear incompetent.

Such incidents equally fuelled a level of mistrust among officers working on the case. 

These may have been incidental or a result of systemic failures in the police.

But Mongwe believes they were the work of people who wanted Bozwana’s killers to escape justice.

It is precisely this conviction that drives him to go after those he believes are the masterminds of the murder – in what he calls the second phase of his investigation. 

There is no doubt that this will be a much steeper hill to climb, especially if those behind the murder are influential individuals who may hold more sway than a Mamelodi gangster. 

It is encouraging to witness Mongwe’s courage and resolve to continue his pursuit of justice. 

It is such dedication that sparks some hope that indeed there are many women and men in our police service who continue to fight to keep our society safe, despite the systemic and political challenges that often cripple their operations. 

Mongwe must be protected and supported to continue his work to finally bring to justice, without fear or favour, those behind this heinous crime.