Durban – A suspected hit man who is alleged to have killed a police officer is expected in court again on Tuesday.
Hawks KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Captain Bonnie Nxumalo said that Mandlenkosi Mzo Ntombela will return to court on July 25 for legal aid.
Nxumalo said that Ntombela, 27, appeared in the uMlazi Magistrate’s Court last Friday in connection with the murder of a Durban metro police services officer in May.
She said that Captain Zwelakhe Ntombela, 50, was shot and killed while he was arriving at his home in uMlazi on May 3. Ntombela was also robbed of his private and service pistols.
Nxumalo said that a case was reported to uMlazi police, which led to an investigation by the Durban-based Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation.
“The suspect was arrested by the Hawks’ team in collaboration with the National Intervention Unit, KwaDukuza police, Mayville Visible Policing, and private security guards in the early hours of July 20 in the uMsinga area, where he was hiding. The deceased’s firearms were recovered from the suspect’s homestead at KwaMaphumulo,” Nxumalo said.
“The arrest of the main suspect is imminent as the investigation is continuing.”
Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident, the Madadeni High Court convicted and sentenced 36-year-old Simphiwe Wellington Mhlungu to 30 years’ imprisonment last Friday for killing Sergeant Protas Siphiwe Mazibuko, 43.
Mazibuko, who was part of the Ladysmith K9 Unit, was driving home in December 2021 when his vehicle was knocked from behind by an unknown vehicle. When he alighted to check what had transpired, he was shot dead and his service firearm was taken.
Mhlungu was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for murder, 10 years’ imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm and five years’ imprisonment for theft of a firearm.
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