‘Politics’ interferes with high-profile murder probe

A POLITICAL squabble apparently derailed investigations into one of the most sensational underworld killings in the province this year.

According to some investigators, this has contributed to the murderers of Nathaniel Moses, a leader of the Mobsters faction of the 28s gang, remaining free.

Two gunmen shot Moses, also known as Nigga, six times in the head outside a car rental dealership in Main Road, Strand, on January 15.

The murder impacted on a massive probe into the Mobsters, during which chilling details were exposed.

These included that the Mobsters were behind a string of seemingly unrelated shootings around the province dating back years and that Moses had insisted tourists be hijacked and the stolen vehicles be used in crimes, before being torched.

Intense investigations were launched into Moses’s murder, sparking tensions within the 28s gang as his successor had to be chosen.

But this week investigators said the investigations had since lost steam because these were “too entangled in politics”.

Some said information about the murder had also been weakened because of the sources who provided it.

Reasons for the investigations spilling over into the political arena included:

An affidavit by an apparent accomplice in the killing detailed what had led up to the shooting and named the apparent gunmen.

The validity of this affidavit was brought into question when it emerged the source had made a second statement at the offices of Community Safety MEC Dan Plato, which carried an unauthorised stamp combining the names of the Community Safety Department and police ombudsman.

It later also emerged that the advocate from the police ombudsman’s office, Jerome Norris, who signed off on the affidavit, was formerly a policeman who admitted to cooking crime statistics at Lansdowne police station.

The statement with the unauthorised stamp, leaked to Weekend Argus, alleged top cop Major- General Jeremy Vearey had worked with an alleged gang boss who ordered Moses’s killing and told Vearey to apply for the position of provincial police commissioner.

Vearey then accused Plato of orchestrating a smear campaign against him, through the use of affidavits made by dubious sources.

A police inquiry into Plato’s conduct was launched.

In May, the docket was forwarded to the National Prosecuting Authority for a decision on whether action should be taken against Plato.

NPA provincial spokesman Eric Ntabazalila told Weekend Argus: “We took a decision in June not to prosecute as there was no evidence that the accused did anything wrong.”

The decision was made the same month Vearey was effectively demoted and transferred from his position as deputy provincial commissioner for detective services, to Cape Town cluster commander.

This week Plato’s spokesman Ewald Botha said Plato was not prepared to comment on the police inquiry, as he was not aware of the NPA having made a decision on the matter.

He said Plato was aware of the Moses murder and trusted the police were investigating.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut said Moses’s murder was still under investigation and no arrests had yet been made.

Traut did not comment on possible incidents having hampered the investigation.

GUNNED DOWN: Nathaniel Moses, 32, a 28s gangster, was murdered in Strand in January in a case which is exposing underworld operations in Cape Town.

Nathaniel Moses, 32, a 28s gangster, was murdered in Strand in January.