Top Hawks officer Lt-Col Frans Mathipa was assassinated days after divulging at a meeting details of his investigation into the mysterious disappearance of suspected Isis financier Abdella Abadiga from a Johannesburg shopping mall.
The Sunday Times has compiled a rough timeline of Mathipa’s last days and hours before he was shot twice between the eyes while driving on a dark, isolated stretch of the N1 outside Pretoria around 8pm on August 6.
Based on interviews with his wife Maria and sources close to the investigations into the murder and Abadiga’s disappearance, the Sunday Times can reveal Mathipa had a high-level meeting with a state prosecutor and South African National Defence Force personnel two days before he was murdered.
Here, he requested access to classified military documents related to the reasons that special forces soldiers were at the Mall of Africa in Midrand, Johannesburg on December 29 when Abadiga — who is still missing — disappeared.
He was also believed to be in the process of sourcing cellphone records tracking the movements of the soldiers.
On the day of his death, Mathipa was summoned to a last-minute meeting in Lynnwood, Pretoria East with an unknown person who reportedly had information crucial to his Abadiga investigation.
This hit was executed with precision. The gun was fired from inside the other vehicle to ensure that no shell casings could be retrieved and the murder weapon and gunman identified
— Police source
He waited seven hours for the supposed informant to show up before deciding to go home. On his way, he intended to stop at a friend’s house in Hammanskraal to collect stokvel money.
As he drove on the N1, he is believed to have turned his head to look at a black BMW driving alongside him when an assassin fired two shots from an assault rifle. A police source described the kill shots, fired through the driver’s window of Mathipa’s state vehicle, as a “double tap”.
“The bullets struck him between the eyes. They were just millimetres apart from each other.
“Evidence shows that his vehicle was travelling at high speed. He was dead before he could even change course and avoid the other car. He would not have even known the shots, which were fired at close range from a fully automatic assault rifle, were being fired,” the source said.
“This hit was executed with precision. The gun was fired from inside the other vehicle to ensure that no shell casings could be retrieved and the murder weapon and gunman identified.
“He was in the N1 northbound lanes about 3km from the Hammanskraal off-ramp. While there are lots of cameras on the N1, on that part there are not many. Investigators are working on CCTV footage, but the problem is the shooting happened in a very dark area.”
Police sources say it was the second such bogus meeting Mathipa had been called to in the weeks leading up to his murder. On the day he was killed, while waiting for the supposed contact to show up, he communicated with colleagues.
“Solid leads are the WhatsApp messages he sent to colleagues the day he died,” the police source said. “They indicate he was to meet someone who had told him they had important documents to hand over. In one of the [WhatsApp] messages, he referred to the meeting being about the kidnapping. It contained the Abadiga kidnapping case number.”
The source said the meeting had been arranged at “short notice”.
“He didn’t give much information other than that it was around midafternoon. He didn’t say who he was meeting. It does not seem like he knew the person. It is unknown if the person was the same person he was to have met at a previous meeting about the Abadiga case or someone else. As with that first meeting this meeting never took place.
“He sent a WhatsApp stating the person was a no-show. He had waited at the agreed spot for nearly seven hours. It is believed the second meeting was a trap, and that the first meeting was to see if Mathipa could be enticed to a meeting.”
A police source said Mathipa was investigating whether members of 5 Special Forces Regiment were involved in Abadiga’s disappearance. The SANDF has denied any involvement. In court papers, the defence force acknowledged special forces members were at the Mall of Africa on the day of Abadiga’s disappearance but said they were there for a military training exercise.
“[Mathipa] wanted to arrest them [special forces members], but because of who these people [soldiers] are he was advised to tread very carefully and not to go too fast. You cannot push these kinds of people into a corner...
“He was advised to do the basics around the investigation thoroughly to plug all gaps and ensure all evidence gathered was watertight and when ready make the move and arrest. At the time of his murder, he didn’t have enough evidence yet to effect arrests.”
Key to Mathipa’s investigation was getting his hands on an SANDF document around the training exercise at the Mall of Africa.
“Despite reaching an agreement to obtain the documents it was discovered there was major resistance from certain quarters in the military to surrender them. It seems people were refusing [to hand over the documents].”
On the day that he disappeared, Abadiga, an Ethiopian national who was under US Treasury sanctions, was to have met at the Mall of Africa with eight other men, whose identities Mathipa had been trying to establish.
The US placed Abadiga, alongside Tanzanian Peter Charles Mbaga and South Africans Farhad Hoomer and Siraaj Miller, under sanctions because it believed the men helped the terror group fund campaigns in Africa.
“What is known from sources is the day of his disappearance, Abadiga was to have met eight people at the mall. Yet, none of these eight were seen on the cameras with him. Their identities for now are unknown,” said a police source.
“At the time of his death, Mathipa was trying to source their photos. They were to be circulated to establish the context of the meeting.”
Abadiga’s brother, Abdurahim, earlier this year launched a court application in a bid to get the SANDF to divulge where his brother is. The urgent application contains stills of CCTV footage placing special forces vehicles at the mall. Several of the cars were seen driving out of the mall parking lot with Abadiga’s Toyota Lexus.
Abadiga was last seen on CCTV footage at 12.11pm, while he was paying for his parking ticket.
The SANDF, in its responding papers, said its members were there on a training exercise. “This type of exercise is conducted from time to time at shopping malls, airports and other strategic business premises visited by members of the public. The purpose … is to have intimate knowledge of the mall and its surroundings with a view to have a plan to train special forces members to evacuate members of the public, dignitaries and other people in the event of any emergency situation and to train members on ways in which quick exit routes out of the mall can be created,” Maj-Gen Herbert Mashego told the Johannesburg high court.
The matter was subsequently struck off the urgent court roll.
Abadiga family sources told the Sunday Times Mathipa had been trying to establish if the special forces members were still with Abadiga four hours after his disappearance. Mathipa apparently told the family his cellphone was switched on briefly at about 4pm the day he disappeared, with his phone pinging to several cellphone towers.
A law enforcement source and Abadiga’s family said Mathipa had secured a court subpoena for the soldiers’ cellphone data, including all their call records and their locations before, during and after Abadiga’s disappearance. At the time of his death, Mathipa is believed to have still been waiting for that information from the cellphone companies.
Maria Mathipa told the Sunday Times her husband had become “particularly apprehensive” in the days before his murder.
She said her husband was murdered while on his way to Hammanskraal to collect the stokvel money.
Asked for comment, police minister Bheki Cele’s spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said: “Your questions are specific and I think should be directed to operational people who have insight on the details of the case.”
Hawks spokesperson Brig Thandi Mbambo said: “It is still premature to comment on the murder investigation. This is a very sensitive investigation that should be handled with caution. We cannot confirm whether there is a link between the kidnapping investigation and the murder at this stage.”
Sources told the Sunday Times two teams from the Hawks in Gauteng, including members of the provincial serious organised crime unit, were investigating Abadiga’s disappearance and Mathipa’s murder.
The SANDF did not respond to repeated attempts from the Sunday Times to get comment.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.