Slain public order police chief took leading role in Marikana massacre saga

GAUTENG police have confirmed that the top-ranking policeman killed outside a Johannesburg fast-food restaurant on Friday night was Colonel David Makhubela, commander of the public order policing unit in the province.

Makhubela, 55, had more than 33 years’ experience as a police officer and was at the time of his death a section commander of the unit in Gauteng.

His body was found with a single stab wound to the chest by a passer-by, and his car was found 500m down the road in Turffontein, south of the city.

Colonel Noxolo Kweza said the motive for Makhubela’s death was unknown, and that police were still investigating. No arrests have been made.

Makhubela’s death brings the number of police officers killed in Gauteng in the past two weeks to five.

They include constables Mthokoziseni Myeza and Maishe Mafokoane, killed on the side of the N3 highway last Sunday, Constable Phuthi Mphe- roane, killed in Erasmia, Pretoria on March 20, and Constable Frans Ledwaba, shot and killed outside Johannesburg’s Park Station on March 24.

Yesterday the South African Policing Union said it was not convinced that Makhubela’s death was a random incident.

A number of factors in the killing indicated that there may have been more to the murder than the apparent theft.

Oscar Skommere, general secretary of the union, said Makhubela’s firearm and his wallet were still on his person when his body was found.

Makhubela led a team of more than 50 officers in the run-up to the August 2012 clash between police, private security and striking mineworkers at Lonmin’s mining operations in Marikana, in the North West.

He was in command of six armoured vehicles tasked with spreading barbed wire at the scene as a defensive barrier between police and the strikers.

Makhubela had previously provided a statement to the Marikana commission of inquiry, which investigated the deaths of 44 people — most of them at the hands of the police — during the violent strike tragedy.

Makhubela last year wrote a letter urging police commission- er General Riah Phiyega to tackle equipment shortages in Gauteng during a parliamentary presentation.

Kweza said Makhubela’s family had been informed of the incident.

“He leaves behind a wife and four children; two boys and two girls,” she said.