East London self-styled expert on planned ‘hits’ behind bars

An East London man who has a reputation for making claims that “hits” have been ordered on prominent judicial, police and business figures continues to baffle police.

Sithembele April, whose “stories” have been likened to film scripts, is currently languishing in a Pietermaritzburg prison.

Yet his mother, Nonceba April, does not know why. The last time she saw him was in August 2018, but she has no idea of the reason for his subsequent arrest.   

April allegedly lied to the Hawks when he told them that Western Cape judge president John Hlophe had planned a hit on his deputy, judge Patricia Goliath.

He allegedly overheard a conversation between two fellow inmates about the hit.

The story was carried in the Sunday Times this week.

But according to three Hawks officers — two current and one former — April is in the habit of informing the authorities about supposed hits on well-known figures.

He himself has been arrested for threatening officers.  

In 2017, April was arrested by police and detained on charges of intimidation against Hawks Col Luphumlo Lwana.

He was also charged after escaping while leading Lwana and other officers to a crime scene. He was later caught and detained.

April was again arrested after  former Hawks spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani received text messages threatening that she would be killed if she did not resign from the police service “within two days”.

Ngcakani did eventually resign from the Hawks to join the National Prosecuting Authority as a spokesperson.

April is also accused of calling Eastern Cape Development Corporation CEO Ndzondelelo Dlulane’s office to warn him of a possible hit, allegedly planned in his presence by a hitman he knew.

He alleged the hitman was hired by someone who had just been fired from the ECDC.

But senior police officers who had once worked with April said he was not to be trusted. They were left “chasing ghosts” on the information he provided.

“We’ve dealt with him several times and we visited him in jail as he spoke of high-profile people who were on hit lists. It turned out that it was all lies,” one officer said.

Another officer said April had made police travel across the country following leads. “We could not get anything from his information. He’s well orientated about what is happening in the country and he will get the reported stories and cook up his own story to make it real,” he said.

A third person, a former officer, said April’s stories “fit a movie script”.

“I am not shocked to hear that he’s in trouble again. What is funny is that he never asks for money for all the information he gives police.”

But his mother still does not know what happened after the last time she saw him in Mdantsane in 2018.

“He left home saying he was going to Cape Town and we never saw him again. The next thing I received a call from him saying that he was in jail in Pietermaritzburg,” she said.

“He told me that he was kidnapped and a plastic bag was put over his head and he was driven off.”

She said she knew her son was not a saint. “He’s fearing for his life in that jail as he suspects there are people there to kill him.”

The Hawks’ national office had not responded to a media enquiry about April’s cases at the time of writing.

DispatchLIVE