Mangena findings explainer
In one case Captain Mangena analysed photos of a shooting incident in Camperdown, where six suspects were killed. Mangena pointed out that the official crime scene photos were taken at night and therefore of little use. However, he had also obtained and analysed photos found on the desktop computer in the Cato Manor offices by a computer technician, who downloaded them and gave them to Navin Madhoe, who used them to try to blackmail Booysen to stop the Thoshan Panday investigation. These photos are clearly not routine police photos from a case docket. They were taken during the day, so the incriminating evidence they capture is clearly visible. Based on these particular photos, Mangena was able to conclude that one of the men was shot dead at close range, and that the hand guns found next to the bodies had been “placed on top of the blood” – in other words, they were planted (see Mangena report, pages 21-33 – warning: graphic content).
Mangena’s findings by themselves are suggestive of wrongdoing. But they are particularly illuminating against evidence provided by former Cato Manor reservist, Ari Danikas. One shooting that Mangena analysed took place inside the garage of a house in Malvern, Durban, in April 2007. In this case the photos were in fact the official Local Criminal Records Centre (LCRC) photos. Their quality was too poor for Mangena to form an opinion. However, Danikas provided the Sunday Times and investigators into the criminal case against Johan Booysen and the Cato Manor officers with photos and videos that Danikas took at the same crime scene. In Danikas’s photos it is clear that one of the bodies was moved after he was killed to make it look as though he posed a threat to the policemen who shot him (warning: graphic content). A video Danikas shot also shows the man’s body in the position he was in before he was moved (warning: graphic content).
This constitutes evidence tampering, in Booysen’s presence, at a crime scene where he was in charge. Danikas also said in his sworn statement that he and a civilian friend who was present were asked to pick up high-calibre cartridges at the same crime scene to mask the use of excessive force (see Mangena report, pages 9-15).
Danikas also took videos of a second suspect who was bleeding to death (warning: graphic content). In Danikas’s videos there is no sign of a firearm anywhere near the suspect. Yet in the LCRC photos that Mangena analysed, there is a firearm next to both bodies.
In a third case Captain Mangena analysed, that of Bongani Mkhize in 2009, he concluded from the photos that all shots were fired at Mkhize’s vehicle from the outside and there was no indication that any shots were fired from inside the vehicle, whose windows were all closed during the shooting. This was confirmed by two ballistic reports, and contradicts the account from Cato Manor and other officers, who claimed Mkhize was shooting at them from inside the vehicle. (see Mangena report, pages 45-52 – warning: graphic content).
In addition to this, Mkhize’s post-mortem showed his hands were stretched forward towards the steering wheel when he was shot from the side, and shell casings found at the scene showed he’d been shot at close range, including by high-velocity bullets in the face after he was dead. Then there was the evidence of a cover-up: the pistol that was handed in to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate only after the post-mortem found he’d been killed with a 9mm bullet, and the strange disappearance from the scene of the two Cato Manor detectives who’d fired the final shots. Eight years later Mkhize’s family won a civil claim against the police for his death, with the help of Amnesty International.
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Mangena also pointed out on in his overall conclusions that statements from Cato Manor officers were in most of the cases he analysed “not consistent” with what he observed. For example, the Cato Manor officials would claim that shots were fired at them during the shootings, but there was never any bullet damage to any of their vehicles, and none of them were ever injured (see Mangena report, page 52 – warning: graphic content).
stephanhofstatter.com 