Cracking the Murder Case of Human Rights Lawyer Thulani Maseko
Part 4: Ex-cop Thabo Kunene, AKA “Commander”
What could have attracted retired police officer Thabo Kunene to come out of retirement to lead a guerilla warfare against a government he served loyally for 30 years?
Thabo has always loved money, from the time he joined to police force he became interested only in making money. This drove him into becoming a crooked cop who specialised in busting cash heist cases. Whenever there was a heist, such as an armed bank or supermarket robbery or a cash in transit heist, Thabo would be one of the cops to lead the investigation.
His interest was not in bringing the robbers to book but to get his hands on the money that would be recovered from the robbers. He would even kill the suspects under the pretext that they were shot while trying to flee arrest. There are even cases where he would shoot and kill relatives of the suspects from whom some of the money would be found. His love for money resulted in him teaming up with very well known armed robbers in Eswatini. The robbers would communicate with him before they hit their target and he would be waiting and ready to pretend to be investigating the robberies whereas he knew the suspects and would get his share of the takings. He would even pretentiously arrest one or two suspects only to have them later released on the grounds that there was not enough evidence. That was part of the cover up.
In many cash in transit heists and armed robberies, Thabo got his share. But he was not the only crooked cop in on this. There are other former ace detectives, who are now deceased, who were part of this group of crooked cops and they worked with Thabo. Even after Thabo retired, he maintained his relationship with the armed robbers and he would work with them in planning and carrying out many heists. But the robberies dried up after the police caught and killed many of the robbers. Some were jailed. Others fled the country.
After going through a costly divorce, Thabo was left with little or no money. At that time, he had taken retirement from the police service due to a “health condition” . The truth is that he was proving too costly for the force as many people were filing lawsuits against the police for acts committed by Thabo. These lawsuits, which amount to millions of Emalangeni, are still pending before court. He went to settle in the far-flung rural area called Mgobodzi, which is in northern Hohho. Life was no longer treating him well. He would get his armed robbery gang to carry out a few jobs and would get his share, but it was not much. Most if these robberiee were committed around the Pigg’s Peak area, which had become Thabo’s turf. When the political unrest began, Thabo saw an opportunity to make money so he reassembled his armed robbery gang and they committed robberies throughout the country. Thabo’s sidekick in the robberies gang was the famous Ishmael “Mshengu” Mabuza, AKA “Messiah”. “Mshengu” was not just an armed robber but a member of PUDEMO who worked as an underground agent for the political party.
When PUDEMO president Mlungisi Makhanya, SWALIMO president Mduduzi Gawuzela Simelane and Swaziland News editor Zweli Martin “Zwemart” Dlamini concocted plans to form an armed guerilla group they consulted “Mshengu” and he brought in the name of Thabo whom he suggested should be engaged to train the guerilla group. He got the three into contact with Thabo and they convinced him to join their plans to carry out an armed overthrow of King Mswati and the Government. For his role, they promised to pay him an amount of E2 million and he agreed to join them. To cut a long story short, when time for payment came, the three could not live up to their promise. They only managed to pay Thabo E200 000, which they said was a 10 percent down-payment. This did not satisfy Thabo and he gave them a deadline for his payment to be made. That deadline came and the trio had still not put the money together.
Thabo then started making death threats against the three and these were serious threats. Gawuzela could not take the threats and this was one of the major reasons he hastily fled South Africa to live with his girlfriend in the United Kingdom. Mlungisi and Zwemart managed to convince Thabo to give them more time to come up with the money. They then went to human rights lawyer and senior PUDEMO member Thulani Maseko to solicit assistance. They requested him to bail them out of the Thabo problem though the money that was being pumped in by international funders of the project to democratize Eswatini. They knew that there were millions of Emalangeni sitting in Thulani’s law firm trust account that had been deposited by the international funders. However, Thulani had already grown dissatisfied with Mlungisi and Zwemart because of the violence they were spreading in the country.
He was particularly not happy with how they were implicating PUDEMO in all the sponsored murders and violence that was taking place. So he refused to assist. Instead, he was hatching a plan to replace Mlungisi and his executive in the 10th PUDEMO Congress that was coming up. Getting Mlungisi out as PUDEMO president would also see Zwemart being isolated from the political party and this was all part of Thulani’s plan to cleanse PUDEMO.
Mlungisi and Zwemart then told Thabo that the money to pay him was available with Thulani but he was refusing to release it. Thabo called Thulani and told him that he wanted his money but the human rights lawyer responded by telling him that he didn’t owe him a cent. He told Thabo that he should look for his money from Mlungisi, Zwemart and Gawuzela. Mlungisi and Zwemart tried to beg Thulani on several occasions to pay Thabo but he refused despite them telling him that their lives were in danger because Thabo said he would kill them if they didn’t pay him his money.
They then hatched a plan to get their hands on the money that was in Thulani’s law firm trust account. Besides Thulani, the only person who would have access to this money was his wife Tanele. But that would only be possible if Thulani was dead. With Thulani dead, Mlungisi would be guaranteed of another term as PUDEMO president and with Tanele’s buy in they would have access to the much-needed money to pay Thabo.
Getting Tanele to buy into the plan was not the most difficult thing to do. She had tasted fame and money during the time when Thulani was imprisoned with The Nation magazine editor Bheki Makhubu. At that time, Tanele became the centre of international attention as the wife of the jailed human rights lawyer. Money came in from all corners of the world to help her fight her husband’s imprisonment. She travelled the world like she had never dreamt. She had access to money that was endless. But that stopped as soon as Thulani was released. She has always missed that limelight. All that Mlungisi and Zwemart had to do was remind her of those times and that this time the limelight and money would even be greater. She would be a rich and world famous widow. She was sold just like that. The plan was then carefully crafted and everyone’s role was clearly defined. What were their roles?
NB: Next is the finale. You will get to know who played which role, including who pulled the trigger and ended Thulani’s life.
