Cape Town - The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) has confirmed the arrest of a 49-year-old woman in connection with the murder of a Cape Town police sergeant.
Sergeant Sithembiso Mnatwana was gunned down in front of his home in Oliver Tambo Drive in Samora Machel on September 8, 2022.
He was returning home after a 12-hour shift.
Mnatwana was stationed at the Cape Town Central police station.
At the time police said Mnatwana sustained several gunshot wounds and died at the scene.
“The victim was not armed with his service pistol at the time of the incident and it is still unclear whether he was killed for access to a firearm,” police spokesperson Colonel Andre Traut said at the time.
Speaking to the “Weekend Argus” after his brother’s death, Thembile Mnatwana, 53, was in disbelief of his brother’s death.
He said it felt like he was dreaming, like a nightmare he could not wake up from.
He told the publication at the time he could not remember how he got to the crime scene but reality hit when he arrived there.
Thembile said questions started flooding his mind when he saw the crime scene.
“I wanted and still want to know the reason. When I saw the cartridges, it immediately hit me that it was the intention of the killer to murder him. It looked like he was in a war,” he told the “Weekend Argus”.
According to Hawks’ spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Philani Nkwalase, its National Priority Violent Crimes (NPVC) team arrested the woman on Friday.
“The case was allocated to the NPVC team of the Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation and their further probe revealed that Babalwa Rulwa-Mnatwana, 49, married to the deceased brother, allegedly hired a hit man to kill the police official.
“The motive for the killing is a subject of the Hawks’ investigation,” Nkwalase said.
He said the arrest was issued against Rulwa-Mnatwana and she further made her first appearance in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court on the same day of her arrest.
She has been remanded in custody.
“The alleged hit man is yet to be arrested,” Nkwalase said.
Rulwa-Mnatwana is expected back in court on Thursday, February 16, for a formal bail application.
IOL