2 000 at funeral of police station massacre victim

NEWLY graduated police constable Kuhle Mathetha was one of three officers and a soldier buried in Cofimvaba, Ngcobo and Mthatha at the weekend.

Mathetha, 27, who graduated in December, was the youngest of the five officers gunned down at the Ngcobo police station last month. About 2 000 people attended the funeral. Deputy national commissioner of crime detection Lieutenant-General Jacob Tsumane said at Mathetha’s funeral at Ncorha village in Cofimvaba: “When you attack a police officer, you attack the state.

“Police have got the tools of the trade [guns] and those tools should be used .

“We shall use [them] to destroy gangs, syndicates and criminals masquerading as angels, prophets and instruments of God.

“Instruments of God or angels bring only peace and will never spill blood.”

He said a memorial to the fallen heroes would be erected at the Ngcobo police station.

“They did not die in vain. They fought a gallant fight and we are proud of them.”

Mathetha’s grieving father, retired school principal Bulelani Mathetha, said he had accepted the fact that his son was gone forever, but that he would remain in his memory as a handsome, disciplined, diligent and humble young man.

He said his heart went out to the parents of the arrested suspects and those killed in a shootout with police.

Some of them had allegedly been masquerading as church leaders.

Three of the dead gunmen are Mancoba brothers. The Mancoba Seven Angels Ministries was founded by Siphiwo Mancoba and his wife, Nomabongo, and was run by their seven sons.

The church was the scene of a bloody shootout last week in which seven people suspected to have been involved in the attack on the police station a week before were killed by police.