Meet the Eastern Cape’s best cop
It took just a week for Detective Constable Ridwaan Baatjies to reconstruct a murder scene, find his suspect, get a confession and have the murderer jailed – and for that he has won a national award.
The Port Elizabeth detective won the province’s top detective award for the speedy arrest and conviction of murderer Wandile Xana, 34.
Baatjies, 34, was awarded for the work he did in the investigation into the murder of Sandra Haupt, 72, who was savagely attacked in a botched robbery on March 21 2017.
On Friday night, Baatjies was announced as the Eastern Cape detective winner, while Bethelsdorp police station Captain Bulelani Msongelwa won the veteran visible policing member of the year award.
The awards were presented at the police’s Excellence Awards gala dinner in East London.
Haupt was found, bloodied and unconscious, in her Nazareth House retirement cottage by her husband, Peter, 75, shortly after he returned home.
At the time, it was thought Haupt could have fallen and hit her head, initially prompting an inquest investigation to be opened.
A day later, police changed the charge to murder and assigned Baatjies to the case – and he promptly reconstructed the crime scene.
On Monday, a modest Baatjies said it was a difficult case, as he had to reconstruct the entire crime scene.
During the investigation, Baatjies found the murder weapon, a bloodied axe handle, which was hidden in a nearby building.
“We worked around the clock on this case.
“I was going home at midnight, getting some sleep and then go back on to the case.
“It was seriously a lot of investigation to ascertain what exactly happened,” he said.
Unknown to Baatjies at the time of the probe, Xana had already been arrested for an unrelated burglary that had occurred 48 hours after the brutal attack.
A patrolling police van spotted him walking down Cape Road in broad daylight with copper pipes which were later found to have been stolen from a house in Central.
After his arrest, Baatjies – assisted by forensic evidence – linked Xana to the murder and tracked him down to St Albans prison, where he was being detained for the burglary.
Within a week, Xana was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, with an additional 15 years for robbery and four years for burglary.
Since 1999, Xana has been convicted of 22 crimes.
Baatjies said he was honoured to receive the award.
“I am very excited about winning this award.
“Even though a case is assigned to an investigating officer, it’s actually a team effort.
“[A] good informer network is also crucial in the investigation of our cases. Securing life sentences or jail terms for criminals is justice served to the victims, their families and the community.”
Baatjies also arrested Vuyani Sefunda, 21, and Mbuyiseli Pikoli , 37, for the murders of Ken Alexander‚ 76‚ and Elaine Allwright‚ 78‚ in their Schoenmakerskop home on September 26 2017.
The couple were badly beaten‚ allegedly with a hammer.
Alexander was found dead in the kitchen, while Allwright died days later in hospital.
Sefunda also faces a murder and robbery charge in the death of Tyrone Plaatjies‚ 49.
Plaatjies was also beaten with a hammer and died in his caravan home at the Forest Hill Cemetery on September 23.
Baatjies has since been transferred from the Humewood detectives unit to the cluster office’s trio task team.
Msongelwa won the veteran visible policing category for spearheading several anti-gang social awareness programmes in the Bethelsdorp area.
Baatjies and Msongelwa will now head to the national awards ceremony, scheduled for early 2019.
‘I was going home at midnight, getting some sleep and then go back on to the case’ Ridwaan Baatjies TOP POLICE DETECTIVE