Swazi Observer

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MAGIDZA’S FAMILY, POLICE FAIL TO BRING BACK BODY FROM SA

By ZWELETHU DLAMINI | 2021-06-13

The Masilela family and the Royal Eswatini Police Service have failed to come-back with the body of murder suspect Paul ‘Magidza’ Masilela, who eventually died in South Africa while he was reportedly on the run.

According to a family member Mfundi Masilela, on Thursday the police accompanied them to Tonga, South Africa to identify the body with the hope of bringing it back to the country the same day.

“The family had prepared all the paperwork that we thought would be required to bring him back. I can confirm that it was him, though we found that his body had been operated on, presumably during postmortem. However, we could not bring his body back because they told us that the paperwork was missing from their side, and told us that there are processes which we were not aware of that had to be completed before we could repatriate the body,” he said.

Mfundi stated that among these was the inoculation of the body which was the health requirement at the border. He said these processes seemed to take days which they were not aware of hence they had to come back empty handed. “We did not know of these procedures and we assumed that the South African police had communicated with the local police regarding all the requirements. We were taken by surprise to learn that it would take days after the identification process.

It seemed none of the paperwork had been done that side. They communicated the requirements to the police, we hope when we go back we would be able to come back with the body,” he said. Aggrieved He revealed that he was going to return to the local police tomorrow as his father had instructed him to do so.

Masilela said they would have laid their brother to rest today had they been able to repatriate his body on Thursday. He said they were aggrieved by certain issues which he would not like to discuss, saying his father may be better-placed to talk about them.

Another family member stated that they were unhappy that a post-mortem was allegedly conducted without their knowledge, and that they did not have the pathology report, which raises questions on the death of Magidza. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that the police and the family could not succeed in bringing the body on the same day. She stated that they were informed of the processes which would take about a week.

“We accompanied the Masilela family to South Africa where the identification of the body was done. We could not bring the body due to inadequate paperwork which needed to be approved in Pretoria. The South African police advised us of the due processes, including the inoculation of the body,” she said.

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