{"id":52879,"date":"2026-03-16T10:32:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52879"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:32:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:32:39","slug":"2026-03-16-witness-ds-alleged-killer-is-lethal-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/16\/2026-03-16-witness-ds-alleged-killer-is-lethal-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness D\u2019s alleged killer is lethal \u2014 police"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Police have described the alleged shooter of Witness D as a lethal person who was hired to do a \u201cclean job\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Matipandile Sotheni was arrested on Saturday as the alleged killer of Marius van der Merwe, who appeared at the Madlanga Commission as Witness D. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">On Monday Sotheni made an appearance at Brakpan magistrate\u2019s court where he is facing six charges, including murder, three charges of attempted murder and possession of unlawful ammunition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The matter was postponed to March 25 2025 for a formal bail application.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Speaking outside court, Police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe expressed disappointment that the person arrested is a former SAPS elite member, who left the force in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIf you look into his background in the police he was a marksman, he is close to a sniper because of his skills. He is highly trained and they knew that if they hired him he would do a clean job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Sowetan<\/b><\/p>\n<hr class=\"c-divider\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Witness #alleged #killer #lethal #police<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police have described the alleged shooter of Witness D as a lethal person who was hired to do a \u201cclean&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52881,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52879\/revisions\/52881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}