The body of the police’s second-in-command, General, Sindile Mfazi, 59, has probably been exhumed from Cambridge Cemetery in East London, and will be the subject of a new inquest to discover exactly how he died two months ago.
After a weeklong DispatchLIVE investigation, the national police would only confirm that there was a new inquest into the death of Lieutenant-General Sindile Mfazi.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo on Thursday told DispatchLIVE: “The police are investigating a case of inquest to determine the cause and circumstances of his death. As part of the investigation there has been some analysis done for which we are still awaiting the results.”
He declined to comment on the exhumation.
Last week a police sourced tipped DispatchLIVE off about an exhumation.
The inquest announcement comes after an earlier announcement that Mfazi had died of Covid-19.
At the weekend DispatchLIVE visited the gravesite and saw his tombstone standing before a large freshly dug mound of rock and soil piled high on the site.
Some of the rubble was pushed up against the tombstone; memorial flowers and wreaths were squashed by the mound against the tombstone. Grader blade marks were clearly visible on the ground.
University of Fort Hare head of criminology Dr Tshimangadzo Magadze said the sudden inquest suggested that the police were no longer sure of the cause of Mfazi’s death — or that new suspicious information had come to the fore.
Magadze questioned how the police could have got the original cause of death wrong as it should have been informed by a medical report.
Mfazi, the deputy national commissioner responsible for crime detection, died in July.
At the time, the police said the long serving senior officer had died of Covid-19 related complications.
National police commissioner General Khehla Sitole said Mfazi was a highly decorated officer who had served the SAPS for 39 years during which time he had held a variety of executive roles.
Sitole described Mfazi as an exemplary leader dedicated to serving and protecting the people of SA.
“The SAPS lost one of its reliable, dedicated and greatly respected leaders in the organisation. Lieutenant-General Mfazi led by example and served this country with distinction until his death,” he said.
From 2003 to 2008, Mfazi was Western Cape’s deputy provincial commissioner responsible for corporate services.
In 2008, he was transferred to the Eastern Cape to the position of provincial head of crime intelligence until 2018.
Mfazi was moved to the police head office in Pretoria to assume duties as deputy national commissioner of management advisory services until 2020.
In December of the same year, he acted as national police commissioner. When he died Mfazi was deputy national commissioner of crime detection.
Through her sister-in-law Nontle Momo, Mfazi’s wife Lindelwa declined to comment on the inquest..
Momo said: “She says she doesn’t want anything to do with the reported developments. She doesn’t want to comment on anything that has to do with the death of her husband.”
Mfazi’s niece Momo also pleaded ignorance of the matter last week.
Magadze said it was strange that the police would have doubts or go back against their initial pronouncement on the death.
“How can they open an inquest while they have already announced to the nation the cause of death?
“Nevertheless, it is very important for the forensic investigation team to have known at the time of death whether the cause of death had a connection to Covid-19 or not.”
He said the team should have obtained a relevant medical and travel history or the contact history with any potentially infected persons.
He said medical records should have been obtained from the hospital or family.
He said the Covid-19 virus could survive in a corpse for a period of time, “which makes it a risky exercise to exhume,” Magadze said.
DispatchLIVE
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