Public Protector asked to probe Mkhwanazi cops

Complaint referred to Ipid for further handling

- By Bongani Mdakane

Mozambican businessman Esmeal Nangy, his brother-in-law Setefane da Costa Brites, and Lebombo border post police officer Samkeliso Mlotshwa have approached the Public Protector to request an urgent, full-scale investigation into the conduct of cops linked to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) police chief Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

The trio's lawyer, Adv Ricardo Arcangeli, wrote to the office of Public Protector Adv Kholeka Gcaleka, asking her to probe Hawks official Lt-Col Deena Govender, a Captain Rauwf (identified in the complaint as the station commander of KwaDukuza Police Station), and all the SAPS members who allegedly booked Nangy, Da Costa Brites and Mlotshwa out of the police cells before his alleged assault last year, allegedly in the presence of Mkhwanazi. In the complaint, Arcangeli states that Nangy and Da Costa Brites were arrested and brutally assaulted by Govender, Rauwf, and their entourage of police officers. This was allegedly an attempt to extort admissions and confessions from them regarding the high-profile alleged kidnapping of KZN businessman Zakariyya Desai, from whose loved ones R35-million ransom was demanded.