With more reports and viral videos of police brutality taking the spotlight, the latest convictions of men and women in blue should come as a relief over concerns of accountability of the police.
A number of those convictions were announced by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) this past week.
One of those convictions was that of 42-year-old Sergeant Mautla Silas Maluleke, formerly attached to the Rietgat police in Soshanguve.
Maluleke was convicted on three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, as well as arson, by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, this week.
The charges stemmed from 2021 when the former police official went to the house of his ex-girlfriend Rhofiwa Munyai – also a constable within the police – and started shooting randomly in the house.
As a result, he injured Munyai as well as her 6-year-old son and killed her 82-year-old mother.
Following that he set the house on fire before escaping, until he was arrested a week later by the police.
The courts handed down a life sentence for the murder, 10 years’ imprisonment for each count of attempted murder, as well as 12 years for the arson.
In another matter handled by Ipid in the Free State, 35-year-old Constable Ezekiel Letlhogonolo Nkuta, formerly based with the Park Road detectives, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment or a R6 000 fine wholly suspended for a period of 12 months, for assaulting “Good Samaritan” Itumeleng Nkaki after he attempted to stop a fight between him and his girlfriend.
Nkuta reportedly assaulted Nkaki on September 30, 2018, with a brick in the face, resulting in him losing two of his teeth.
In addition to the sentence, he was further declared unfit to possess a firearm.