After ready two years for his or her son’s DNA check results that police saved from them, the Chamane household’s preparation for ultimate closure had been thwarted once more after Hammarsdale officers knowledgeable them that Sibongankosi was buried in 2021 already, 700km away in Nkomazi.
The household’s ordeal and unwell therapy by the native law enforcement officials began in 2020, after Sibongankosi Khethuthula Chamane, 25, was discovered murdered two weeks after he went lacking in March, just a few days earlier than the nation was plunged into the primary Covid-19 lockdown.
Throughout this time, Sibongankosi’s mom Khosi carried the ache of not having the ability to bury her son, regardless of positively figuring out him on the mortuary.
Police insisted on a DNA checks, and the household obliged.
The household routinely went to the police station for the previous two years, in search of Sibonginkosi’s DNA results, however had been instructed they weren’t but accessible each time. They had been by no means supplied with a case quantity all through the nightmare.
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‘This is criminal’
Following The Citizen inquiries put by to the provincial police headquarters, the household was proven the check results final month. which confirmed the stays had been Sibongankosi’s.
It turned out that the results had been launched in May 2021 already. While on the brink of obtain the stays, they had been instructed that Sibongankosi was buried in August final 12 months in Nkomazi.
Provincial police on the time blamed this on poor communication and promised to resolve the matter, however Hammarsdale police gave the household the runaround once more, and wouldn’t produce the younger man’s stays.
The newest police bungling has traumatised the household once more, mentioned Khosi.
“Why me? What is it that my household did mistaken? Police saved coming to my dwelling, making excuses about my son’s physique… making me signal papers that had been by no means defined to us. There is one thing occurring, I believe a legal act by police.
“No one can explain to me why my son was buried in Nkomazi in 2021 when we waited for DNA results that were being kept a police station. I want to know who gave permission to have Sibongankosi buried as a pauper,” she mentioned, talking in isiZulu.
Nontobeko, the sister to the late Sibongankosi, mentioned all she needed was to bury her brother and discover closure following his unexplained homicide.
“I now not cry… I’m simply indignant. I’m indignant on the system that undermines the poor and black, I’m indignant at Hammarsdale police who hid DNA results from us and transporting my brother’s physique distant for burial with none suggestions to us.
“This is criminal. Someone did this for reasons only known by them. I fear for my mother because she’s an elder, this has been eating away at her.”
Internal police probe
Per week after The Citizen despatched detailed inquiries to KwaZulu-Natal police communication unit, spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala mentioned the officer who was initially charged with the investigation has been changed and faces an inside investigation.
“A new investigating officer was assigned to investigate the matter further and he is in contact with the family to assist in terms of the investigation and the process of exhumation of the body. Unfortunately we cannot comment further as investigations are at the sensitive stage,” she mentioned in an e mail.
Gwala had no solutions as to why the physique ended up being buried in Nkomazi, or who authorised the burial.
As the household await Sibonginkosi’s stays to be introduced dwelling, Nontobeko asserted that native police infringed on his brother’s rights.
“My brother’s human rights have been trampled upon… I am yet to come across this kind of trauma done by government.”
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