UPDATE: Blue-light driver kills taxi boss

A police official struck and killed an elderly pedestrian on the Croc Valley Road on Thursday morning. Watch video of the scene here.

May 4, 2017

Elbi Dippenaar 2 minutes read

MBOMBELA – The officer was driving a car belonging to the convoy of Premier Mr David Mabuza. The deceased, Mr Sgangeni Manzini (71), was a taxi owner from KaNyamazane.

He was attempting to cross the Croc Valley Road when he was run down.

“My father owns a couple of taxis. One broke down on this road. He took another taxi and came to check on the broken one,” Ms Dineo Manzini, the daughter of the deceased, told Lowvelder on the scene.

Her father had parked across the road from the broken-down vehicle, and as he crossed the road, the approaching Range Rover hit him.

Manzini was pronounced dead on the scene by provincial emergency services’ paramedics. When Lowvelder arrived, the driver of the vehicle had already been taken to the police station.

The black Range Rover had no visible number plates.

Capt Dawie Pretorius, spokesman for the Mbombela SAPS, confirmed that the driver was a police official used by Police Protection Services (PPS), responsible for escorting VIP state officials.

“It is not yet clear if the driver had been driving the vehicle in an official capacity at the time of the accident, as the investigation is still ongoing,” he said.

Pretorius could not comment on the number plates, saying the entire incident had to be investigated. He confirmed that a case of culpable homicide had been opened.

Other incident:

Mr Ken Roberts, deputy chairman of the DA in Mpumalanga, called for blue-light vehicles to be banned in Mpumalanga last year, after the convoy of state security minister, Mr David Mahlobo was involved in a head-on collision in which Mr Herman van Schalkwyk was killed near Piet Retief.

After the accident, Mahlobo’s convoy stopped and loaded in the occupants of the vehicle involved, and left the scene of the accident. The driver was charged and the court case is ongoing.

Roberts cited other incidents involving VIP units; including two people dying after colliding with KwaZulu-Natal premier Mr Senzo Mchunu’s blue-light brigade, and Thomas Ferreira, a Gauteng teenage motorcyclist left with permanent brain damage after a run-in with a blue-light convoy.

What Mabuza said:

Mabuza conveyed his deepest condolences to the victim’s family in a statement yesterday afternoon. He said he would be meeting with the family too.

He was on his way to the airport to catch a flight to attend the memorial service of the taxi crash victims near Verena two weeks ago. Read more on page 10.