VIDEO: Former cop who sacrificed his career for Tony Yengeni dies
A King William’s Town man who tampered with a police docket to cover for ANC big-wig Tony Yengeni, died on Tuesday.
Siphiwo Hewana was station commander of Goodwood Police Station in Cape Town when Yengeni was arrested for drunken driving in November 2007 after his BMW landed on a traffic island.
Yengeni was eventually acquitted of the charge due to a conspiracy to protect him, for which Hewana was convicted on a charge of defeating the ends of justice.
In an interview with the Daily Dispatch two years ago, Hewana admitted he had issued the instruction to his junior police officers to doctor Yengeni’s drunk driving docket. Hewana said all he told his subordinates was to change the time of his arrest as Yengeni was out on parole after being found guilty in 2006 of receiving a discount on a Mercedes-Benz SUV as a reward for his role in the arms deal scandal.
Hewana, 55, paid dearly for the cover up and in May 2010 was sentenced to four years in prison.
After his release on parole, Hewana relocated back to his family home in West Bank, King William’s Town.
Hewana’s sister Ndileka, said her brother died on Wednesday morning after a short illness. She said she visited him at his home two weeks ago and found him locked up inside.
“He could hardly breathe and so we rushed him to Grey Hospital the same day. He died in the early hours of last Wednesday morning,” said Ndileka.
He had been surviving on a R1500 monthly budget he was receiving for renting out his garage.
This was a far cry from the man who was one of the top earning station commissioners. He had to sell a Mercedes Benz C200 he had bought two months before being convicted because he could no longer afford it.
His wife left him soon after, a decision Hewana at the time of his interview with the Dispatch, said he fully understood.
Asked how the family felt that their brother died without having found closure with Yengeni, for whom he sacrificed his career, Nandipha said: “We are not okay at all, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do.”
Hewana will be buried on Saturday.
Yengeni could not be reached for comment yesterday.