Audi R8 crash docket 'gone'

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate says it has been unable to locate the police docket relating to the car crash that claimed the life of a policeman and a businessman during the early hours of Thursday on Oxford Road, Johannesburg .

The police insist that the docket is being handled by a specialised provincial police investigative unit and is under lock and key - but the directorate, the police watchdog, says it has been unable to locate it.

The directorate investigates high-profile crimes committed by the police, such as corruption.

Its spokesman, Moses Dlamini, said: "Up to today we have not been given the docket. We have made inquiries but have not received it. We don't know where it is."

The docket contains details of the mysterious car crash that killed Constable Goodman Lubisi and businessman Areff Haffejee. They were killed when Haffejee lost control of his Audi R8 supercar and crashed into a lamppost and a wall in Oxford Road.

At the time, police claimed that Haffejee had tried to escape officers who had found dagga in his car when they stopped him at a roadblock in Sandton, northern Johannesburg.

They allege that Haffejee, pursued by Lubisi's partner in a police van, crashed his car during a high-speed chase.

But the police's version of events has been rubbished by witnesses, police officers close to the investigation and investigative directorate detectives.

The police have failed to explain:

• Why Lubisi did not use his service pistol to force Haffejee to stop his car;
• Why the policemen did not call for backup;
• Why Lubisi's colleagues at the crash scene waited nearly 10 minutes before calling for ambulances;
• Why the police van's vehicle monitoring device shows that the vehicle was not speeding, braking hard or rapidly cornering, as it would in a high-speed chase;
• What happened to the dagga said to have been found in Haffejee's car;
• Why there was a delay in notifying the investigative directorate about the crash; and
• Why the statement of witness Selaelo Mannya, who was driving alongside the police van and the Audi, had not been taken.

The police have yet to name a third policeman involved, who was travelling in the police van.

An IPID investigator said there were "major" discrepancies between the police's version of events and what other evidence suggested.

"There is no technical evidence to support the theory of a chase. If there was [a chase], why was the police van driving slowly - in some parts of the 'chase' no faster than 40km/h," the investigator said.

"If Haffejee was not trying to get away, we need to know why the policeman was in his car. We need to know why it took so long for the police to contact the IPID."

He said the investigation would look into the policemen's service records.

"So far we have not been able to question the other policemen as they are on sick leave."

Mannya said claims by the police that they were chasing Haffejee were rubbish.

"When I stopped at a traffic light both the Audi and the police stopped next to me. Why would they do this if they were chasing?"

Mannya said that though he had given the police all his contact details, he had not been asked to provide a statement.

"What I saw happening was highly suspicious . those policemen were not chasing that car . they were not in a hurry to phone for help."

Police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila said the docket was not lost.

"It is with the provincial investigative unit, which is tasked to investigate high-profile crimes," he said.

"They are investigating this incident because one of our own died and because of the allegations."