'We'll come back and kill you'

'COME see! We have slaughtered two cows!"

With these words, the men of Cato Manor's serious and violent crimes unit invited neighbours in a rural village near Melmoth, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, to view the bodies of two men they had allegedly just shot and killed.

`The naked body of Bongani Velapi Biyela, 41, lay sprawled on a patch of grass outside his rondavel.

Inside another home, 18-year-old Khanyisani Buthelezi's corpse lay in a pool of blood.

Relatives present at the time said this week that Biyela and Buthelezi had been "executed" by the policemen - and recounted how they callously celebrated afterwards.

The unit - which was disbanded this week - fell under the ultimate command of provincial Hawks boss Major-General Johan Booysen, who is fighting his suspension.

In December the Sunday Times exposed how the unit operated as an alleged hit squad, with witnesses claiming they "executed" suspects and then held booze-fuelled parties.

This sparked an Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) probe into 51 suspicious deaths - including those of Biyela and Buthelezi.

This week the Sunday Times interviewed Makhosazana Biyela, the wife of Bongani Biyela. In December we published a photograph that showed her weeping while some of the policemen sat next to her drinking beer and celebrating after her husband's murder.

Makhosazana said her husband was shot in the early hours of the morning on November 22 2008, after he had gone outside, unarmed, in his boxer shorts to investigate a noise .

She said she was assaulted by three officers searching for weapons in her room. She then heard gunshots outside.

She said she was made to lie down in a police car while the homestead was ransacked.

The police found a licensed handgun and a spear.

She said by the time she was released the policemen were celebrating with beer bought with R4100 they had taken from the family.

"They were laughing and clapping when they told me: 'We have killed Bongani.' That's when I collapsed," she said.

"Then they kicked me and said: 'Go and see your husband. Go shake his hand.'"

On November 28 2008, an official police statement described Biyela's death as a "police success".

It said Biyela and Buthelezi were cash-in-transit heist suspects and had been shot in self-defence after they came out of their room "guns blazing".

But several other relatives this week told a different tale.

Biyela's niece, Happy Biyela, said the policemen were drinking by the time she was let out of her home at about 7am. "They said: 'Where's your cattle? We want to choose one for a braai'."

She saw an officer defecating in one of the huts, she said. "He used a lady's dress to wipe his [behind]," she said.

According to others, the unit's Warrant Officer Paul 'Mossie' Mostert urged bystanders to examine the bodies saying: "View the cows we have slaughtered."

They also said that, three months earlier, Mostert had threatened Biyela when he was released from prison after a case against him was withdrawn at Durban Magistrate's Court.

"Mostert and other Cato Manor guys surrounded us in the courthouse and Mostert said to Bongani: 'You can go home now but I am going to kill you'," said his nephew, Nsindiso Biyela.

On the day of the shooting, unit members threatened to kill them if they laid a complaint against them, he said.

"They said they would wipe out all the males in the family, including the children. For two years we stayed with relatives. We were too scared to sleep here because we thought they are going to come and kill us."

On Friday the ICD confirmed that an ICD investigator had gone to the scene in 2008 but Biyela's family "would not cooperate". Spokesman Moses Dlamini said the ICD found out later that the family had been "threatened not to speak to anyone" .

Contacted for comment, Mostert said he had "nothing to hide" and asked to discuss the case "man to man".

He insisted on meeting at the deserted end of a shopping mall parking lot in Malvern, Durban, where a fellow Cato Manor member, later introduced as Warrant Officer Mac Makhanya, took pictures of Sunday Times reporters with his cellphone.

Mostert refused to answer any questions relating to his alleged role in the deaths . "These matters are sub judice - that's all I want to tell you," he said.

At the same time, relatives of Kwazi Ndlovu - a teen allegedly shot by Mostert in questionable circumstances on April 1 2010 at Esikhawini in northern KwaZulu-Natal - are pushing for a formal inquest into his death.

Ndlovu's father, Sibusiso Ndlovu, said: "I want justice for my son's death. He was killed by Mostert just five days after celebrating his 16th birthday. They said they were looking for dangerous prisoners who escaped from Westville Prison but my son wasn't an escapee or a criminal - he was a Grade 10 pupil at school."

Ndlovu claimed the police kicked in the door of his home at about 2.30am, shot his son and planted a gun next to his body. "We never owned any gun," he added. The family's lawyer, Robin Palmer, said: "We are waiting for the National Prosecuting Authority to open a formal inquest on the matter as there are witnesses who can testify that the boy was shot while lying on the couch, contrary to police reports that he was armed."

investigations@sundaytimes.co.za