Radebe family & Amadiba Crisis Committee lawyers sent a letter to Shaun Abrahams of the NPA: The Hawks in EC is blocking murder investigation of Bazooka (2018-03-22)
On 22 March 2016, the day after we are celebrating the Human Rights Day in South Africa, the chair of Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), Mr Sikhosiphi ‘Bazooka’ Radebe, was assassinated outside his house and workshop in Lurholweni Township in Mbizana, Eastern Cape.
Today, our lawyers send a letter to Mr Shaun Abrahams of the National Prosecution Authority. The Radebe family and ACC demand that the NPA intervenes to unblock the murder investigation of Bazooka Radebe. The NPA must take charge. The EC Hawks has for two years refused to investigate the murder.
The assailants came in a hijacked car with two tourists inside, one in the boot and one in the back seat, saying they were police officers. Bazooka Radebe did not believe them. He always advised us: “Never let them take you. They must shoot you where you stand.” Following his own advice, he refused to be kidnapped. He was shot several times after a fierce fight when the assailants tried to push him into the VW Polo. It was abandoned south of Shelley Beach with the two tourists still inside.
Hawks in EC soon took over the investigation. They started by trying to stop the Radebe family’s appointed forensic specialists from participating in the autopsy at the morgue in Bizana. When the family’s ballistic expert and lawyers came on 30 March to the Port Shepstone garage of SAPS, they found that the hijacked car had been turned back to the family less than 48 hours after the murder and no longer available for forensic investigation.
The Radebe family and the ACC leaders decided to try a private investigation. AIDC was contacted and approached The Raith Foundation. The iFirm started a private investigation in September 2016, which made rapid progress.
After a year, former SAPS General and Provincial Commissioner of Mpumalanga, Thulani Ntobela reported that “the DPCI would have solved this case long time ago if they were willing to do so”.
Bazooka died for our Right to say No to mining on our ancestral land on the Wild Coast.
LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF BAZOOKA RADEBE!
Amadiba Crisis Committee
Spokesperson: Nonhle Mbuthuma 0763592982; Chair: Sbusiso Mqadi 0634964074
Our lawyers in this matter: Henk Smith 0832661770 (Henk Smith & Associates) and Johan Lorenzen 079 6545038 (Richard Spoor Inc.).
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