POLICE investigating the beach stabbing of Marikana commission lawyer Dali Mpofu said yesterday they had not ruled out a link to his work on behalf of the Lonmin miners and their families.
“We are looking at all possibilities and I don’t want to speculate for now,” spokeswoman Brigadier Marinda Mills told the Saturday Dispatch.
Social media buzzed with speculation yesterday that Mpofu, a former CEO of the SABC and a prominent boxing administrator, had been targeted deliberately.
Police and reporters gathered at the crime scene about a kilometre from the Eastern Beach lifesavers’ hut yesterday.
Blood splatters marked the spot where Mpofu was set upon by two men and his painful path back to find help.
Forensic investigators dressed in suits and city shoes battled up a dune to a point where some of Mpofu’s belongings, including his car keys, were found yesterday morning.
Mpofu’s wife Mpumi told reporters at East London’s Life St Dominic’s Hospital he was recovering well.
“I have spent several hours with my husband.
“He is still in pain but due to the great care he is receiving at the hospital, there are visible signs of improvement from the condition he was in at admission,” she said.
She said Mpofu had told her he was sitting down and enjoying the view when he was attacked.
She said he believed the motive was robbery and not linked to his work.
Mpumi Mpofu said her husband would remain in hospital until doctors were satisfied that the most serious wound, which was to his chest, was healing properly.
“It is not yet clear when he will be discharged,” she said.
BCM lifeguards Mzameni Mafuna, 35, Siseko Dyantyi, 24, and Simpiwe Felani, 25, who raced to meet the injured lawyer as he struggled the last 100 metres to safety, said Mpofu was struggling to breath and clutching his left chest when they reached him.
Two guards whipped out their medical aid kits while the third went to call emergency services.
Minutes after the attack two rangers at the Buffalo City Metro’s Nahoon Point Reserve confronted two well dressed young men.
They were in their early 20s, one tall and wearing a Panama hat, the other short.
Ranger Zandile Dlova told the Dispatch she knew nothing of the attack when she questioned the men, who appeared to be “shaking and nervous”.
She came across them on the tar road about 120m above Bat’s Cave and about 20 metres from a gap in the fence leading to the crime scene.
She said one of the men was waving a pair of lightweight, navy BVD shorts, as if he was “trying to dry them”.
When asked what they were doing, one man said: “We didn’t do anything. We are just walking.”
Then the pair burst into a sprint and vanished into the bush.
Buffalo City mayor Zukiswa Ncitha said the attack highlighted that crime was getting out of hand on the East London beachfront.
“We will have to take strides in dealing with this problem – not because he is a high-profile person, but because we can’t afford to allow such incidents to happen on our doorstep.
“We have been talking about the having surveillance cameras on the beachfront.
“We will sit down as council and see how to unlock the delays.
“To the family, let me apologise on behalf of the city .
“Nobody deserves to endure that,” she said.
Tshepo Mahlangu, spokesman for the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, said organisers were exploring the possibility of a temporary replacement for Mpofu.
“He is an important member of the commission, playing a very important role,” he said.
Another option could be to reorder the programme.
“The commission has to continue. We can’t afford any more delays,” he said.
Mahlangu said the commission saw no link between its work and the attack.
A Dispatch reporter met a friend of Mpofu’s on the beach early yesterday. Well dressed and armed with a knobkierie, he said he had come to look for his friend’s lost possessions.
He dismissed a single shoe, saying: “Dali would never wear a shoe as old as that.”
But by noon, the remote crime scene, tucked behind the first jutting promontory of land, was crowded with media, police and even a bunch of Mpofu’s old boxing friends.
Blood spots were seen on a cement walkway over a sewer.
There was no crime tape at the spot, where forensic investigators were struggling and slipping up the dune.
Media were told to speak to official spokesmen.
Mpofu’s friend said the injured lawyer had given police details of the place where he was attacked.
The three lifeguards said groups had been seen loitering in the bush and dunes east of the Blind river over time. “There are different groups. We go to the bush and chase them,” they said.
They scoffed at claims made by a young car washer, who unsuccessfully demanded R50 from the Dispatch for his story, that the attackers were seen running past the lifeguard shack towards the bush behind the Windmill.
“We would have seen anyone running past us,” they said.
Mills said no one had been arrested yesterday, but that police were investigating a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and common robbery.
Mpofu probe
“We are looking at all possibilities and I don’t want to speculate for now,” spokeswoman Brigadier Marinda Mills told the Saturday Dispatch.
Social media buzzed with speculation yesterday that Mpofu, a former CEO of the SABC and a prominent boxing administrator, had been targeted deliberately.
Police and reporters gathered at the crime scene about a kilometre from the Eastern Beach lifesavers’ hut yesterday.
Blood splatters marked the spot where Mpofu was set upon by two men and his painful path back to find help.
Forensic investigators dressed in suits and city shoes battled up a dune to a point where some of Mpofu’s belongings, including his car keys, were found yesterday morning.
Mpofu’s wife Mpumi told reporters at East London’s Life St Dominic’s Hospital he was recovering well.
“I have spent several hours with my husband.
“He is still in pain but due to the great care he is receiving at the hospital, there are visible signs of improvement from the condition he was in at admission,” she said.
She said Mpofu had told her he was sitting down and enjoying the view when he was attacked.
She said he believed the motive was robbery and not linked to his work.
Mpumi Mpofu said her husband would remain in hospital until doctors were satisfied that the most serious wound, which was to his chest, was healing properly.
“It is not yet clear when he will be discharged,” she said.
BCM lifeguards Mzameni Mafuna, 35, Siseko Dyantyi, 24, and Simpiwe Felani, 25, who raced to meet the injured lawyer as he struggled the last 100 metres to safety, said Mpofu was struggling to breath and clutching his left chest when they reached him.
Two guards whipped out their medical aid kits while the third went to call emergency services.
Minutes after the attack two rangers at the Buffalo City Metro’s Nahoon Point Reserve confronted two well dressed young men.
They were in their early 20s, one tall and wearing a Panama hat, the other short.
Ranger Zandile Dlova told the Dispatch she knew nothing of the attack when she questioned the men, who appeared to be “shaking and nervous”.
She came across them on the tar road about 120m above Bat’s Cave and about 20 metres from a gap in the fence leading to the crime scene.
She said one of the men was waving a pair of lightweight, navy BVD shorts, as if he was “trying to dry them”.
When asked what they were doing, one man said: “We didn’t do anything. We are just walking.”
Then the pair burst into a sprint and vanished into the bush.
Buffalo City mayor Zukiswa Ncitha said the attack highlighted that crime was getting out of hand on the East London beachfront.
“We will have to take strides in dealing with this problem – not because he is a high-profile person, but because we can’t afford to allow such incidents to happen on our doorstep.
“We have been talking about the having surveillance cameras on the beachfront.
“We will sit down as council and see how to unlock the delays.
“To the family, let me apologise on behalf of the city .
“Nobody deserves to endure that,” she said.
Tshepo Mahlangu, spokesman for the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, said organisers were exploring the possibility of a temporary replacement for Mpofu.
“He is an important member of the commission, playing a very important role,” he said.
Another option could be to reorder the programme.
“The commission has to continue. We can’t afford any more delays,” he said.
Mahlangu said the commission saw no link between its work and the attack.
A Dispatch reporter met a friend of Mpofu’s on the beach early yesterday. Well dressed and armed with a knobkierie, he said he had come to look for his friend’s lost possessions.
He dismissed a single shoe, saying: “Dali would never wear a shoe as old as that.”
But by noon, the remote crime scene, tucked behind the first jutting promontory of land, was crowded with media, police and even a bunch of Mpofu’s old boxing friends.
Blood spots were seen on a cement walkway over a sewer.
There was no crime tape at the spot, where forensic investigators were struggling and slipping up the dune.
Media were told to speak to official spokesmen.
Mpofu’s friend said the injured lawyer had given police details of the place where he was attacked.
The three lifeguards said groups had been seen loitering in the bush and dunes east of the Blind river over time. “There are different groups. We go to the bush and chase them,” they said.
They scoffed at claims made by a young car washer, who unsuccessfully demanded R50 from the Dispatch for his story, that the attackers were seen running past the lifeguard shack towards the bush behind the Windmill.
“We would have seen anyone running past us,” they said.
Mills said no one had been arrested yesterday, but that police were investigating a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and common robbery.
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