Pretoria – The police in Mpumalanga are questioning a 41-year-old man as part of an investigation into a case of possession of human body parts.
“Meanwhile 45-year-old Jabulani Sam Mnguni and 49-year-old Pascal Mandla Gininda, appeared at the Eerstehoek Magistrate’s Court [in Mpumalanga] today [Monday] for possession of human body parts. Mnguni and Gininda were arrested on Sunday 5 July 2020, at Elukwatini,” Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said.
“Their arrest spirals from an intelligence driven operation which prompted police to follow up on information regarding a red sedan which was on its way to Elukwatini with two occupants conveying human body parts.”
Hlathi said police intercepted the sedan, searched it and found human body parts.
“The suspects’ vehicle was intercepted at the Lochiel-Nhlazatshe intersection where police thoroughly searched it and discovered a leg, placenta and a knee which was separately collected from a certain house,” said Hlathi.
“The discovery sparked an investigation on the matter which police are following the trail of events to uncover where these parts were taken from. Both suspects were remanded in custody pending a bail application on 15 July 2020.”
Last year, in an unrelated incident, a 53-year-old man found dead on the side of the road after a hit-and-run accident near Giyani was found to have some body parts missing as his family was preparing for his burial.
At the time, Limpopo police spokesperson Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said the police arrived on the scene and found Mbhazima James Makhubele lying dead with multiple injuries.
A case of culpable homicide, as well as hit-and-run, was being investigated when the family informed police some body parts were missing from Makhubele’s body.
“They reported the matter to the police, who immediately [moved] the body back to the mortuary, pending further police investigations.
“The police had required further postmortem on the issue and they are still awaiting the results, which will lead them further on what has really transpired.
“The complaints that some of the deceased’s body parts are missing is a subject of police investigations,” Ngoepe said.
African News Agency/ANA
