Highway murder: Metro cops lying

An internal Johannesburg metro police investigation initially cleared four officers patrolling the N1 less than an hour before a Johannesburg man was killed there.

But when The Star highlighted the discrepancy in the amount of time the patrol car spent in the area compared to the first time it drove through, the metro police swiftly re-opened the investigation.

The initial probe followed a Benoni driver's allegations that a metro police squad car had been seen patrolling the N1 highway just minutes before 32-year-old Arren Mahabir's car hit rocks placed there by robbers hiding in the bushes around 2.40am on Thursday.

Mahabir was shot and killed as he and his fiancee, Valesh Naidoo, got out to change the burst tyre.

The motorist, who hit the rocks half an hour before Mahabir, had told the Saturday Star that the officers never stopped to remove the obstruction from the highway, despite the fact that rocks on the road are a well-known tactic.

On Tuesday director David Tembe, the Joburg metro police department's head of operations, said the officers denied seeing any rocks when they passed the area.

The driver said a metro police car passed him while he changed his tyre and the officers had in fact weaved their way through the debris without stopping to clear it.

It was this allegation that forced JMPD management to launch an investigation.

Every metro police vehicle is fitted with a tracking device, and the department ordered a printout to determine the exact times their vehicles were in the area.

According to the vehicle tracking report, the first vehicle passed the area between Malibongwe Drive and William Nicol Drive at 1.13am.

The vehicle, a Ford Focus, spent one minute and 56 seconds in the area. Twenty-four minutes later, at 1.37am, a second vehicle passed the area - a Ford Ranger - followed a minute later by the Ford Focus.

This time, however, the Focus took 10 minutes and 54 seconds to go through the area, while the Ford Ranger took 5 minutes and 21 seconds.

Asked why the officers in the Focus took nearly nine minutes more to patrol the same stretch of road compared to the first time, Tembe said: "Yes, this needs more probing. There are some questions that need to be answered."

Tembe said the officers had been adamant that there had not been any rocks placed on the road, but he admitted that investigating officers had not picked up the difference between the two times.

Part of the internal investigation notes that the metro police control room received its first report of the incident at 3.03am.

"The officers immediately responded, and by the time they got there, the SAPS were already on scene and were attending to it," Tembe said.

Both the SAPS and the metro police have stepped up patrols in the vicinity.

Provincial police spokesperson Captain Julia Claassen said on Wednesday that no arrests had been made.

Tembe said the JMPD had set up a special unit four months ago to patrol a stretch of the N14 near Krugersdorp where motorists were being targeted by robbers placing rocks in the road. This unit was now monitoring the N1.

"This was the first time that rocks were placed on the N1 highway. We are appealing to people not to stop their vehicles if they hit a rock, and if they do see rocks on the road, they should call us immediately," Tembe said.

Any motorist who sees rocks on the road is urged to call the JMPD at 011-375-5911.

Update 9 Oct 08: Cops in hot water over N1 killing