Probe into Phoenix detective’s murder

POLICE are still hunting for the killers of a Phoenix police detective who was shot while on duty in Ndwedwe last week.

Sergeant ST Mbanjwa was with her colleague, who cannot be named, in an open area near a sugar-cane field in an unmarked state vehicle on Tuesday.

It is alleged that two men approached the vehicle from either side. A source said one of the men on the passenger side shot Mbanjwa while the other tried to open the driver’s door, banging the window with a firearm.

“The policeman reversed the car away from the scene. Mbanjwa was shot in the chest and hands. The other policeman was unharmed. The men fled without taking anything. It could have been an attempted hijacking.”

A case of murder and attempted murder was opened with Verulam police. The Hawks are investigating.

Phoenix police and the Phoenix Community Policing Forum were tight-lipped about the incident.

At least 12 police officers have been killed in KwaZulu-Natal since the beginning of the year.

In April, Sergeant Nduduzo Sibiya, 36, who was stationed at the Durban Harbour, was stabbed and killed after helping a woman who was being assaulted in Cornubia.

In March, Sergeant Jeremy Martin Paul, from the Mountain Rise police, was killed in the Swapo area in Pietermaritzburg while tracing a suspect in an attempted murder case.

In February, two officers – a man and a woman – were shot dead in the Taylor’s Halt area in Pietermaritzburg.

Sergeant Makhosaze Mdlangathi, 33, and Sergeant Mfikelwa Mtolo, 36, were ambushed and killed by gunmen. They were off duty. They were driving to Mtolo’s home when they were ambushed.

In the same month, another officer on duty was shot and killed in Welbedacht while attending to a domestic violence call-out. He was shot in the chest above his bulletproof vest.