Two Hawks officers accused of corruption and defeating the ends of justice have had their case transferred from the Bela Bela Magistrates’ Court to the Polokwane Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Limpopo.

The accused, Brigadier Mapome Mohajane and Captain Virginia Kupa, will be back in court on the 24th of October. They allegedly facilitated a bribe with police officers investigating the murder of Mokgalakwena councillor, Valtyn Kekana and ANC Youth League leader Ralph Kanyane in 2019.

Community Spokesperson Baba Selomo says they are dissapointed that law enforcement officers are implicated in criminal activities.

“As community members of Mokgalakwena, we have been long waiting for this day and we are saying that we are going to court. We are going to monitor this case, because we have been saying it can’t be that our leaders are murdered and we don’t know what happened. So, those men and a woman are the ones who are interfering in this case. So, we are going to court to monitor until the people are arrested, including the politicians who are behind the killing of our leaders,” says Selomo.

Kekana and Kanyane were shot and killed in Mokopane while seated inside a vehicle in 2019. Supposedly, Kekana was to present a report on corruption in the municipality before he was killed.

While appearing in court, the accused hid their faces. They allegedly bribed the investigating officers to drop the charges against the suspects or do shoddy investigative work in the politically related killings in Mokopane.

The High Court in Polokwane later provisionally withdrew the charges against the then suspects. Five people, including local politicians, were arrested in connection with the murder of Kekana and Kanyane. Now, with the outstanding police investigations almost complete, the authorities are hopeful to make an arrest in due course.

Initially, five men were detained for the alleged killings. According to Major General Samuel Manala, they are finalising a forensic report that will enable them to take the docket to the Director of Public Prosecution for a decision.