Seven men suspected of involvement in the 2008 murder of Kranskop Superintendent Zethembe Chonco were killed by the police in subsequent months, but his family and colleagues are still no closer to knowing who was behind the fatal attack.
Chonco was the head of the KwaZulu-Natal taxi violence task team and commander of the Kranskop police station.
He and other policemen were escorting four taxi violence suspects from Kranskop to the KwaDukuza Magistrate’s Court when they came under attack.
Paralysed
His colleague in the task team, Lieutenant Mphathi Joseph Khanyile, who was with him during the attack, and Chonco’s brother, Snothi, are still searching for the truth behind the attack.
Khanyile said justice had not yet been done because no one had been prosecuted.
“All that police did was kill suspects,” he said. “No one was brought to court to reveal who assigned the hit men.”
Khanyile said he had been teamed with Chonco in June 2007 to crack down on taxi violence in Msinga, Kranskop and KwaMaphumulo.
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On the morning of August 27 (2008) we were only allocated three police officers to escort us to the court, instead of the usual 30 officers,” he said. “This made my commander (Chonco) angry. His plea for more officers failed, so he decided we should proceed with the three police officers.”
A group of men armed with AK-47 rifles attacked them as they drove through Plangweni, KwaMaphumulo.
“I dived for cover, and when I re-emerged with my R5, I noticed that Chonco had been shot in the head and had already died. I fired several shots… I then passed out.”
Khanyile survived being hit by seven bullets, but with a partly paralysed left arm.
Four years later, he said, he was still waiting to be interviewed by the police investigating the attack.
His letters to the provincial police head office had never been answered.
Snothi Chonco said he had phoned Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s office to ask for a meeting. He said he wanted to ask Mthethwa to get to the bottom of his brother’s murder.
Mthethwa’s spokesman, Zweli Mnisi, said it was difficult to follow up on Snothi’s claims because he had not said who he had spoken to in the minister’s office.
Khanyile approached Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela yesterday, asking him to arrange for him to state what he knew of the attack.
Polela said his office would only comment after interviewing Khanyile.
“After receiving a call from Khanyile, I approached our officers to give him a platform, which might help to crack Chonco’s murder,” he said.
Polela added that the Hawks would also probe why Chonco had only been given three officers as an escort.
