Killer cops lose appeal
THE FREEDOM bid by two policemen who shot and killed one of their own and critically wounded another in a 2013 dramatic scene in downtown Joburg has failed.
Mmereki Welcome Mathekga and Johannes Thulani Mngomezulu have failed to convince the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) that their convictions and imprisonment were unjust on grounds that they acted reasonably by firing shots at a pair they believed were robbery suspects.
On that fateful January 14, 2013, the constables from Jeppe police station responded to a back-up call after one of their Hillbrow station colleagues was shot by a robbery suspect in the CBD.
Just after arriving on the scene, Mathekga and Mngomezulu opened fire against two plain-clothes officers they claimed they mistook for gun-wielding criminals.
Constable Michael Thembani Tshomela was killed and Constable Sidwell Khumalo was critically injured.
In 2017, the South Gauteng High Court convicted and sentenced Mathekga and Mngomezulu each to 15 years for murder, seven years for attempted murder, five years for another count of attempted murder and two years for malicious damage to property.
The sentences were to run concurrently.
Convinced they could rely on the section of the Criminal Procedure Act that allows police to use force during arrests, the killer officers turned to the SCA to appeal both convictions and sentences.
Judge of Appeal Baratang Mocumie has ruled against them and affirmed the high court ruling. The two acted outside the scope of the cited section of Criminal Procedure Act, the judge found.
They made no attempt to arrest the two police officers they thought were suspects, but randomly opened fire.
“The first appellant (Mathekga) did not even wait for the second appellant to properly park the police vehicle they were travelling in,” said Judge Mocumie.