Africa-Press – South-Africa. An on-duty officer of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation Unit was shot and killed in Hammanskraal on Sunday.
Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo said Colonel Frans Mathipa was busy with an investigation when he was shot.
She said gunmen opened fire on his vehicle on the N1 highway, near the Hammanskraal Toll Plaza.
He lost control of the vehicle and landed in a ditch.
Mbambo said Mathipa was shot in the head and declared dead at the scene.
She said his unit was investigating a murder case, which had been opened at the local SAPS.
Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya conveyed condolences to Mathipa’s family, and condemned the murder.
Lebeya said:
Mathipa’s murder comes three weeks after a Northern Cape police officer, Warrant Officer Gaonathebe Diphephenyane, was found dead near Ventersdorp in the North West.
Diphephenyane had travelled to Rustenburg on Monday, 17 July, to testify in a case, but never arrived.
His vehicle was hijacked and he was robbed of his cellphone.
North West police said Diphephenyane’s lifeless body had signs of strangulation.
An investigation by a multidisciplinary law enforcement team led to the arrest of four men in connection with his murder.
Elvis Hlongwane, Alexander Hobjana, Thabiso Phendela and Sthembiso Molaba appeared in the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court.
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