The late Doctor Setlai who was allegedly shot and killed by a City of Tshwane Metro Police
The National Prosecuting Authoritity (NPA) is still considering whether to charge a female Tshwane Municipality Police Department (TMPD) officer who allegedly murdered “Marry Me” informal settlement resident Mosebi Doctor Setlai on 13 April 2021.
It is alleged that Setlai died after the said TMPD officer, who was apparently drunk, fired a rubber bullet at him at close range and hit him on the chest; resulting in him dying on the spot.
The incident happened during running battles between residents of “Marry Me” informal settlement near Mamelodi and the TMPD.
This as the “Marry Me” residents were illegally connecting electricity illegally from the nearby relatively affluent settlement area of Baviaanspoort which has electricity while they had none in their shacks.
As it was very cold on that fateful day, the residents decided to connect electricity illegally so that they could boil kettles for hot water, cook and switch on heaters to warm their shacks.
The Public Protector’s office got to know about this matter when Tshwane Talks filed a complaint about Setlai’s death against the TMPD officer on behalf of the widow of Mosebi Doctor Setlai.
This was in 2023.
According to a communique sent via email to Tshwane Talks last month, which was signed by Chief Investigator in the Public Protector’s office Baldwin Neshunzhi, the Public Protector’s office was assured by IPID chief investigator Tlou Mashitisho that IPID has completed its investigations into the death of Mosebi Doctor Setlai and has now handed the matter over to the NPA to make a decision regarding the prosecution of the implicated female TMPD officer.
The Public Protector’s office had been asked by widow Mrs Nteseng Setlai to investigate IPID’s delay in investigating the death of her husband Mosebi Doctor Setlai.
At the time of publishing this story the Public Protector’s office had not yet responded to the following questions:
1. Any proof that the case has been referred to the National Prosecuting Authoritity by IPID?
2. Any documents that were furnished to you as the Public Protector’s office in this regard?
3..Or did you take the IPID investigator’s word for it and didn’t bother to get any documentary proof?
4.On which date was the matter of the murder of Mosebi Doctor Setlai referred to the NPA by IPID?
Mosebi Doctor Setlai was killed on 13 April 2021, the IPID received the docket of the case that very same evening, yet it is only now in 2026 that it has sent the matter to the NPA for a decision to prosecute or not.
Widow Mrs Nteseng Setlai has always been of the opinion that there is an ongoing cover-up on the part of all relevant authorities in this matter and that she has now lost hope in all law-enforcement agencies of this country starting with the TMPD, the police, the IPID and the Public Protector’s office itself.
Even Afrikaaner lobby group AfriForum ‘s private prosecution unit could not help widow Setlai to find out as to who the killer of her husband is.
This as the unit informed Tshwane Talks some years ago that the IPID was still waiting for a toxicology report regarding the demise of Setlai.
Be that as it may, widow Mrs Setlai is puzzled as to why a toxicology report is necessary in this regard because according to witnesses, her husband was shot with a rubber bullet and didn’t die as a result of poisoning as toxicology tests are done when food poisoning is suspected.
Another perplexing matter in this case is that the three men who were with Setlai when he got shot and killed, were themselves arrested and taken to the local Mamelodi East Police Station but got released a few days in court without being charged.
According to one of the witnesses, this was an attempt to scare them and intimidate them from revealing what they had seen regarding the death of Mosebi Doctor Setlai.
Yet another puzzling matter in this case is that TMPD Superintendent Isaac Mahamba was quoted in various publications promising that an internal inquiry into the death of Setlai would be conducted, but it is now five years since the death of Setlai and no results of the so-called inquiry by the TMPD have been released if one was ever held in the first place.
Still another development adding to the puzzling nature of this case is that the case was first assigned to an investigator who down the line got suspended from the police, then the case was assigned to another investigator who later on resigned from IPID, meaning Setlai’s case had no one in the IPID working on it at various intervals, thus leading to it dragging for five years before IPID could refer it to the NPA this year.
According to Chief Investigator in the Public Protector’s office Baldwin Neshunzhi, a warning statement has already been obtained by IPID from the suspected TMPD female officer and the matter now rests squarely on the shoulders of the NPA and that the Public Protector’s office won’t have anything to do with the matter going forward and has duly closed its file in this regard.
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