Sister tells court she begged senior officers to confiscate constable’s firearm

His family said they had told his superiors he was not fit to possess a firearm and that it should be withdrawn.

As a result, his former wife Luleka Xabadiya is suing the minister of police for more than R800 000 – the maintenance she believes they would have received had he lived until their children, Anelisa, Alizwa and Iminathi, turned 21.

However, the police are defending the court action, arguing that Xabadiya had booked the firearm out when he was on standby duty for the weekend of February 24 2012.

The police also say he failed to return the firearm after completing his standby duty.

Although two police officers were sent to Xabadiya’s home on the day of his death (Feb- ruary 29) to seize the weapon, he threatened the two before turning it on himself.

The police also state that he handed a suicide note to one of the officers.

“Given his stated intention, the deceased could have taken other means to commit suicide,” court papers state.

Yesterday, Xabadiya’s sister Lungiswa Kwebulana told the Port Elizabeth High Court he had made numerous attempts on his own life since 2008.

“He was a quiet person. Too quiet,” she said. He had driven his service van over an embankment, but had survived.

On another occasion, he went into a toilet cubicle at the police station and placed the muzzle of the firearm in his mouth, but was disturbed by people entering the toilet. “This shocked me. I asked [my husband] to accompany me to the authorities in Port Elizabeth,” she said.

Kwebulana said she had told two different colonels at Mount Road police station about her brother’s suicide attempts. She was assured, she said, that his firearm would be withdrawn.

However, Kwebulana said Xabadiya still had his firearm, continued acting strangely and even threatened relatives.

After their father’s death in August 2011, she said, she requested the provincial commissioner’s office to withdraw Xabadiya’s firearm.

She wanted to ensure that the gun was taken in before her brother attended the funeral.