The City of Tshwane Municipality Section 79 Civilian Oversight Committee will consider what cause of action to take regarding the “murder” of Amanda Park informal settlement resident Doctor Setlai.
Setlai, who was a security guard by occupation at the time of his death, died after allegedly being shot and killed by a rubber bullet emanating from a gun carried by a female TMPD officer on 13 April 2021.
This was during a riotous confrontation between the residents of Amanda Park informal settlement (affectionately known as “Marry Me”) and the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) officers.
According to reports, scores of “Marry Me” informal settlement dwellers were in the process of connecting electricity illegally to their shacks from the neighbouring affluent settlement of Baviaanspoort.
This as they didn’t have electricity in their own shacks and the weather was cold and they wanted to use heaters to warm themselves.
On the fateful night of 13 April 2021, TMPD officers confronted the erring residents so as to dissuade them from their illegal activities but this resulted in running battles between the two sides as the residents apparently retaliated with violence to the actions of the TMPD officers.
According to witnesses who spoke to Tshwane Talks, the late Doctor Setlai was not involved at all in the running battles but was coming out of a car he had been sleeping in when a female TMPD officer reportedly shot and killed him with a rubber bullet that him on his chest.
A day after the death of Setlai, TMPD Superintendent Isaac Mahamba was quoted on various media platforms as saying the case would be referred to the Independent Police Investigating Directorate (IPID), and that on top of that the TMPD would itself conduct an internal inquiry regarding Setlai’s murder.
In the aforesaid media statements, Mahamba admitted that Setlai’s cause of death was a rubber bullet coming from a gun carried by a TMPD officer.
Up until now the TMPD hasn’t contacted Setlai’s widow Nteseng Willheminah Morake Setlai regarding the outcome of the said inquiry if at all one was ever conducted.
The IPID has also not contacted widow Mrs Setlai formally but merely responded to media queries by stating that they (IPID) were still waiting for a toxicology report, even though to a layman this is baffling because toxicology is supposedly related to food poisoning and not rubber bullet wounds.
Up until now the IPID has not revealed the contents of the so-called toxicology report.
Widow Setlai told Tshwane Talks that she suspects that there is a deliberate attempt to cover up the identity of the TMPD officer who killed her husband.
“Two witnesses who saw how my husband was shot and killed were arrested on the selfsame night he was killed and locked up at the Mamelodi East Police Station only to be released two days later without being charged,” lamented Setlai.
“This was a clear threat to them to withdraw from the case as witnesses,” she said.
Tshwane Talks then wrote a letter to the City of Tshwane Speaker on behalf of widow Setlai, wherein she demands closure for herself and justice for her husband.
Setlai wants the Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana to table this matter as an agenda item in a Council meeting and subsequently establish an inquest into the death of Doctor Setlai so as to reveal the identity of her husband’s killer who must then face the might of the law.
On 13 April 2025 it would be exactly four years since the demise of Doctor Setlai.
In response to the letter sent by Tshwane Talks to the Speaker’s office, Judith Maluleka, who is Group Head in the Office of the Speaker wrote the following:
“Kindly note that Office of the Speaker has referred your email to the Section 79 Civilian Oversight Committee for consideration and the office of the Speaker will formally respond to your request in due course.”