WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONS NOTHING BUT 'LIP SERVICE'

We are fighting a failing system, says widow of slain top cop

- NICOLA DANIELS

"HER husband died a hero, that's all I can tell her." This is the message Nicolette Kinnear, widow of celebrated policeman and former section commander in the Anti-Gang Unit, Charl Kinnear who was murdered outside his Bishop Lavis home, said she would convey to Marius van der Merwe's grieving widow.

Van der Merwe, a crucial witness at the Madlanga Commission, was shot dead outside his Brakpan home on Friday.

Van der Merwe, a security company owner, had implicated the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) in his testimony, alleging that they had been involved in the torture and murder of an unnamed man, and he was forced to dispose of the body.

Speaking to the Cape Times yesterday, Nicolette said her heart bled for Van der Merwe's widow, "as nothing that nobody says or does can change anything".

"The same thing I've been saying all along, we are fighting a failing system. We ask ourselves why people don't want to come forward and talk and the answer is evident, this is the result of it. He (testified) in-camera. Likewise we ask why are policemen keeping quiet... look what happened to my husband."