A frantic distress call over the police radio to his colleagues as his vehicle was being forced off the road could not save a Port Elizabeth policeman, who was shot in the head and left lying in the bushes in Greenbushes.
On Thursday, National Commissioner General Khehla John Sitole released a statement condemning the ongoing attacks on police and ordered that the killers be tracked down and brought to book.
The body of Detective-Constable Mthetheleli Mamana, 36 – whose wife is on maternity leave – was found just a few metres from his unmarked police car in Draaifontein Road at about 1.30pm on Wednesday.
He was in plainclothes. This latest police killing comes just four months after another detective, from the same police station, was shot dead in New Brighton.
According to officials on the scene, the police car – a Ford Figo – stopped on the side of the road shortly after Mamana realised he was being followed.
Moments before the shooting, Mamana had made a desperate call over the police radio for help, as a grey VW Polo tried to push his car off the road.
The car keys were still in the ignition and it appeared Mamana had jumped out to take cover in nearby bushes.
He was shot in the front of the head. Nothing seems to have been stolen and his state firearm was also at the scene.
According to police, his call for backup came after he spotted the Polo with two occupants – the driver and a person in the back seat – following him in Tembani Road in Greenbushes, near St Albans.
Mamana was en route back to the police station after leaving St Albans Correctional Centre where he was following up on leads to do with an open investigation.
There was one bullet hole in the front passenger-side door, indicating that he was shot at as he tried to flee.
In a statement Sitole said that he had ordered the 72-hour activation plan be implemented and the killers hunted down. "The killing of the constable must be condemned in the strongest way possible by all sectors of society,” he said.
"The multi-disciplinary team has been tasked to investigate this case and bring those responsible to book as soon as possible", added General Sitole
Mamana, who had been in the police for more than 11 years and was based at the Mount Road police station detective branch, had been following up on leads in a case that led him to the nearby St Albans area, officials said.
Mamana’s wife is a detective at the same police station.
On June 12, Detective-Constable Bonga Ngcingwana, 35, was shot dead when four men in a silver Toyota Etios opened fire on him and his partner, 37, in New Brighton.
His partner, a sergeant, escaped unharmed.
Both detectives, also from the Mount Road station, were also following up on a case.