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The Hawks are treading carefully as they try to make sense about a woman who made explosive allegations that she stumbled on a plot by Deputy President David Mabuza to assassinate a nature conservationist.
The woman, who claimed she was Thandeka Mabuza and the deputy president’s niece, wrote an affidavit on November 8 alleging that she stumbled on a hit list with Fred Daniel’s name on it in her uncle’s Johannesburg house, where she worked as an assistant.
Thandeka personally went to the DA offices to report her “discovery” and met with City Press, but then disappeared a day after writing the statement.
Although her motive is yet to be established, her claims come as Daniel is continues his court bid to get a protection order against Mabuza.
City Press understands that Hawks members have been following Thandeka’s trail.
However, Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi would not be drawn into commenting about the investigation.
“This is a bit challenging because there’s some information we can’t take to the public. It’s a sensitive matter, but it’s receiving attention,” he said.
Thandeka has two profiles: one is Thandeka Mabuza, who was born on October 24 1986 and whose residential address is in Mahushu near Hazyview, Mpumalanga.
The other is Nomfundo Sambo, who was born on October 19 1987 and is from the same residential address as Thandeka.
Sambo also has a residential address in Kagiso, Krugersdorp.
She has a Facebook profile and lists the telephone number of Masoyi Police Station as her contact number.
Thandeka’s claims sent Daniel running helter-skelter for nine days, trying to finalise his protection order against Mabuza on an urgent basis in the Pretoria High Court.
Daniel withdrew the application when information came forward that Mabuza was in Russia when Thandeka claimed he was in Johannesburg and plotting the assassination with two hitmen.
Daniel initially applied for a protection order against Mabuza in the Carolina Magistrates’ Court early this year.
He claimed that when Mabuza was Mpumalanga premier he played a “dirty hand behind the scenes” when he and the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency were engaging in a mediation process over a dispute to issue him permits to keep wild animals at the Cradle of Life project.
The magistrates’ court dismissed Daniel’s application later in the year, but he is going back to court next year to appeal because he alleges bias by the magistrate.
Daniel said in his court papers that Mabuza “presided over a well-orchestrated assault campaign on my life, property, business, staff and family, which includes my 84-year-old mother”.
Mabuza’s spokesperson, Thami Ngwenya, has dismissed Thandeka’s story as a fabrication to “tarnish the deputy president’s name with the end goal being to build a negative public perception of his character”.
