Ten dead after killing spree by South African police detective

By Rory Carroll - Guardian.co.uk

April 5, 2006

A South African detective went on the rampage this week, killing eight people including four colleagues and an infant before being shot dead by police yesterday.

Superintendent Chippa Mateane, 42, shot three women and a two-year-old boy on Monday night, then opened fire at Kagiso police station in Krugersdorp, a town west of Johannesburg.

The killings, shocking even by the standards of South Africa's violent crime epidemic, prompted calls for compulsory psychological counselling for police officers. It started around 6.30pm in nearby Tarlton, where the child and the three women, aged 24, 30 and 48, were shot. Radio reports said one of the women, Matshidiso Selena Mosia, was the killer's girlfriend. A fourth woman, 21, was wounded.

Thirty minutes later Mateane arrived at Kagiso police station and opened fire in an office and corridor, killing four colleagues. A fifth was wounded in the chest. Three of the dead were found lying under a table surrounded by blood-splattered dockets. Mateane fled in a police vehicle, then tracked down and seriously wounding his brother in Sebokeng township.

A huge manhunt ended at 4am yesterday. "He was finally shot dead himself during a confrontation with police in the early hours of Tuesday morning," a police spokeswoman said. During the chase a police car ran over and killed a pedestrian, bringing the total death toll to 10.

The national police chief, Jackie Selebi, said: "It is unknown what sparked such an unacceptable level of rage ... and it pains me to even try and understand."

Local media reported that Mateane had been troubled by his relationship with his girlfriend but had betrayed no sign of losing control. "We are all traumatised. He was a normal guy," a police reservist told the South African Press Association.

Jealousy sparked bloody massacre in Kagiso

By Alex Eliseev and Mike Cherney - Iol.co.za

April 5, 2006

Enraged at a failed relationship with his girlfriend, police Superintendent Chippa Mateane stormed into her Krugersdorp house, locked all the doors and began his bloody massacre.

Eight hours later he lay dead, following a shoot-out with his colleagues, who were forced to hunt him down.

In total, 10 people - including girlfriend Poppy Mosia and two other women, a one-year-old boy and four senior police officers - had been slain. Two more people were wounded and taken to hospital.

On Tuesday, The Star visited the Tarlton plot were the massacre began at about 6.30pm on Monday. At the time, four women and a child were trapped inside the house.

A note left by Mateane read: "I am not to blame. I am important... I deserve to be loved by you. I deserve to be treated with respect. And I will still love you forever."

The words were neatly typed up on a computer, printed out and decorated with a small picture of a panda bear.

A wooden door lay in pieces and a glass sliding door had been smashed. Bullet holes were visible in the tiled floors and an empty gun holster lay nearby.

On the night, as 38-year-old Mosia lay dying in her room, her niece, Masabata Molobi, who also had been shot, grabbed a cellphone and called for help. It was Mosia's phone and she reached John Amanda, a good friend.

In the other rooms, Mosia's daughter Lorato, her one-year-old grandchild Lebogang, and niece Dineo Molobi, lay in pools of blood.

"Chippa has shot everyone in the house!" was Masabatha's desperate SOS to Amanda.

Masabatha lived to tell the tale and is recovering at Leratong hospital in Kagiso on the West Rand.

By the time Amanda, 48, arrived, the upset Mateane had gone to Kagiso police station, where he killed four senior police officers.

Amanda couldn't get into the house, although he could see that Poppy was still alive. He ran for help to a police station as he was scared Mateane would return and kill him.

Mosia's best friend, Nonhlanhla Makgate, said on Tuesday that the 42-year-old detective, recently redeployed to Kagiso police station, was extremely jealous and suspected his girlfriend of having affairs with policemen. They had been dating for eight years.

"Poppy ended the relationship last year, but he told me he would never leave Poppy," said Makgate of Midrand. "He was very possessive and jealous."

She said that until the break-up she never worried about her friend's safety as Mateane was like a "big brother", always reliable. But when the "love went sour" she began warning Mosia that Mateane might do something crazy.

"I was talking to her on Friday, asking her to take him back, I was scared he would kill her," she said.

According to Amanda, Mateane told him to stop visiting Mosia at the beginning of last month. On March 2, Mosia asked Mateane to move out of the farmhouse, where he was staying on and off.

Mosia's uncle, Kgomotso Ditshetelo, said on Tuesday that the family was overcome by disappointment and bitterness at Chippa.

"Poppy was up-and-coming. She was a very successful businesswoman who made enough money to buy herself a plot," he said. "She started working (as a beautician and hairdresser) in Soweto and had her own salon."

Although he did not know Mateane well, Ditshetelo described him as a loner who did not mix.

At the police station, however, junior staff referred to Mateane - who was second-in-charge at the detective unit - as a "cool guy" who always offered advice.

After gunning down the senior police officers, seen as father figures at the station, Mateane fled to Sebokeng to find and shoot his brother. He used a police car but abandoned it on the way.

His brother survived and is in a critical condition.

Also caught in the killing spree was a pedestrian, killed as police chased Mateane through Sebokeng.

Mogale City Mayor Calvin Koketso Seerane described Mateane as a "very nice gentleman, a very nice chap".

"You would not think he is capable of such a heinous crime."

National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, who visited the scene by helicopter on Monday night, said: "It is unknown what sparked such an unacceptable level of rage in the superintendent, and it pains me to even try and understand what could cause a man to embark on such senseless carnage."

The murdered police officers are Senior Superintendent MM Zondo, Captain TD Masipa, Captain JM Sokhela and Captain Frans Monama.

Murderous cop shot dead by police

SABC News

April 04, 2006

A senior police officer has killed eight people after a shooting rampage in the West Rand last night. His killing spree led to the death of three women, a one-year-old baby and four police officers.

Another women was critically injured during the crime spree, which occurred in Tarlton and at the police detectives academy at the police station in Kagiso. She is being treated at a hospital.

Police say the detective firstly killed the three women and the baby. He then went to his police station in Kagiso, a township just west of Johannesburg, where he pumped bullets into four of his colleagues.

The Kagiso-based police officer was shot dead by police in Sebokeng early this morning after an extensive manhunt.

Woman throws light on Kagiso killings

SABC News

April 04, 2006

A 21-year-old woman has shed some light on a shooting spree by a policeman that left four police officers and six other people dead on the West Rand on Monday night.

Police spokesperson Senior-Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said a woman injured in the shooting gave detectives a statement on Tuesday at Leratong hospital.

Martins-Engelbrecht declined to expand on what the statement contained.

However, she did confirm that Masabata Moobi, 21, had told police that the killer cop, Superintendent Chippa Mateane, 42, had been romantically linked to one of the women killed, Matshidiso Selena Mosia, 38.

Mosia was also the mother and grandmother of two other victims. They were Lerato Mosia, 24, and Lebogang Mosia, two.

'Come and help'

MWEB News

April 04, 2006

Johannesburg - "Come and help, Chippa has slaughtered everyone like animals," was the frantic call John Amanda got from a top cop's girlfriend on Monday night.

He said on Tuesday that Poppy Mosia had called him shortly after being shot by superintendent Chippa Mateane, 44, her lover of many years.

She was one of eight people who died when the "star policeman" went on the rampage on the West Rand. Two others were seriously wounded.

A pedestrian also died, after being hit by a police car in pursuit of Mateane, bringing the death toll to 10.

Cop’s killing spree still affects many

Many unanswered questions remain

By s’thembiso hlongwane

FOR five months an inquest docket into Superintendent David “Chippa” Mateane’s alleged murder spree, the details of which were released to the public this week, was locked inside a steel frame door at Kagiso Police Station.

None of the policemen at the station wanted to touch it or talk frankly about the April 3 2006 incident when Mateane murdered his girlfriend, Poppy Mosia (48), her daughter, Lerato Mosia (24), grandson Lebogang Mosia (18 months old) and niece Dineo Moobi (21) at their house in Tarlton on the West Rand at about 6.30pm.

Half an hour later, Mateane went to the Kagiso Police Station, where he shot and killed four of his colleagues – Senior Superintendent Meshack Zondo (42), Captain David Masipa (38), Captain Jabulani Sokhela (42) and Captain Frans Monama (40).

After fleeing from the police station, Mateane went to Sebokeng, where he wounded his brother, Abraham Mateane (44).

He also shot at his girlfriend’s cousin, Masabata Moobi (21).

A pedestrian, Patrick Zolile Sole (44), was allegedly knocked down and killed during a subbseqent police car chase.

Mateane (42) was tracked down hours later and shot dead by members of the Kagiso police.
West Rand police spokesperson Superintendent Milica Bezuidenhout said an inquest had concluded that no one would be prosecuted as the suspect, Mateane, had killed himself.

“It was a tragic incident and a very sad chapter in our history,” said ­Bezuidenhout.

The inquest docket, completed in September 12, 2007, indicates that:

Sokhela died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head

Masipa died of a gunshot wound to the chest

Monama died after a gunshot wound in the head and chest

Zondo sustained gunshot wounds in the pelvis.

Some at the Kagiso Police Station still vividly remember the day Chippa, a well-respected policeman, went on a rampage.

“Words fail me. I can’t describe how I feel almost two years after the incident,” said one senior policeman, who declined to be identified.

On Friday City Press visited Mateane’s brother, Abraham, who sustained a neck injury and is now paralysed. He said he bore no grudge against his beloved brother.

“Chippa was my best friend. You know, even today I keep asking myself why he shot those people. I really don’t know,” said Abraham, a former school teacher at Leema Mokotuli Primary School in Sebokeng, near Vereeniging.

Bezuidenhout said: “Our hearts go out to all the victims and their families but there is little we can do at this stage apart from giving them all the necessary support.”

Mosia’s friend, Masego Modise, said she had also forgiven Mateane: “I don’t have much to say, life must go on. God has already forgiven him.

Superintendent David “Chippa” Mateane