By Celani Sikhakhane
- Khuzwayo and Nel were ambushed in Mt Edgecombe north of Durban, and the car used in the attack was later found burnt in kwaMashu near Khuzwayo’s home area, sources say.
- Khuzwayo died in a Durban hospital over the weekend, weeks after the attack, with colleagues telling Scrolla the news brought relief to those who had believed the rumours.
Sergeant Mandla Khuzwayo spent his final weeks in a Durban hospital carrying something heavier than his injuries. His own colleagues believed he had helped plan the ambush that killed the man lying in the next lane of the same investigation.
Khuzwayo, a member of KwaZulu-Natal’s elite crime intelligence unit, died over the weekend. He had been hospitalised since 30 April.
He and Captain Louis Nel were ambushed in Mt Edgecombe, north of Durban near Verulam. Nel died at the scene. Khuzwayo survived and was rushed to hospital.
What happened next turned his colleagues against him. The vehicle used in the attack was later found burnt in kwaMashu, close to Khuzwayo’s home area. Sources inside crime intelligence told Scrolla.Africa that the discovery sparked suspicion among his colleagues that he had organised the attack, using people from his neighbourhood to silence Nel over a cash heist investigation.
“Some of our colleagues believed that Khuzwayo is the one who organised the ambush with an aim to kill Captain Nel, but they claim the attack went wrong as Khuzwayo himself also got injured badly,” a source said.
The source said colleagues pointed to the burnt vehicle as the key detail. Their theory was that Khuzwayo had been protecting members of a cash heist gang who were under investigation, and that killing Nel was meant to end that investigation.
Khuzwayo never responded to the rumours publicly. According to sources, the suspicion broke him.
“His death comes with so much relief to those who were sympathetic to him after such horrible rumours,” the source said.
At the funeral of Captain Nel, KZN Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi vowed to track down the killers “dead or alive.” KZN Premier Thami Ntuli also attended the service at the Jesus Dome in Durban.
KZN police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda referred Scrolla.Africa to national spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe. Mathe did not answer her phone or respond to written questions by the time of publication.
Pictured above: Crime intelligence sergeant Mandla Khuzwayo died over the weekend in a Durban hospital, weeks after surviving an ambush in Mt Edgecombe that killed his colleague Captain Louis Nel.
Image source: Supplied
