Media Statement from National Media Centre
Corporate Communication
South African Police Service 

03 November 2014

Since the death of Senzo Meyiwa last week Sunday, the investigation team has been working very hard, day and night, to find the perpetrators of this tragic act. The investigation is going well. We have received a lot of information from the public through various platforms such as Crime Stop, Crime Line, SAPS social media accounts, directly to the police stations and the investigation team. On that basis, we detained and questioned 13 people. After questioning all the suspects, we decided to arrest only one individual at this stage.

The individual arrested is the 25 year old Zanokuhle Mbatha from Vosloorus. He appeared in the Boksburg Magistrate court. He was remanded in custody and is to re-appear in court on Tuesday, 11 November 2014. We are now at a stage where we can focus on a court driven investigation and follow up several leads to get the case trial ready. But this does not mean the end of the investigation. We have cast the net as wide as possible to look at each and every possibility. We are busy putting the pieces of the puzzle together and it is coming into place nicely. We still maintain that the information currently at our disposal, suggests that it was a robbery gone horribly wrong.

The three people taken in for questioning over the weekend could not be positively linked to the case and were subsequently released.

There is a great deal of speculation out there in the public domain. We are certainly not going to respond to each and every rumour. Suffice to say that we appreciate the support we have received from the members of the public and the media. We are still appealing to the community to continue providing us with information that could lead to the arrest and successful prosecution of the suspects in this matter. The reward of up to R250 000-00 is still on offer as we believe there may be more suspects outstanding. People with information can contact Crime Stop at 08600 10111 or SMS Crime Line on 32211. All information received will be treated as confidential.

In conclusion ladies and gentlemen, as you will concur, we fully appreciate the fact that that the public wants to know what is going with the investigation. To every extent possible, we have made ourselves available to provide the information. We assure the public that we will do everything possible to ensure that those who have committed this crime are arrested and brought before the courts. However, we cannot provide detailed information about the investigation. The details will be revealed in court. Management has therefore taken a decision that this will be the last time we are addressing the media on this investigation. We will do so again at a time when we believe we have made sufficient progress with the investigation in order for us to provide feedback to the public.

Issued by the Divisional Commissioner of Detective Services, Lieutenant-General Vinesh Moonoo.

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