MURDER-ACCUSED COP ‘BHUBESI’ ARRESTED IN SA

MBABANE – After being on the run for four months, Patrick ‘Bhubesi’ Shongwe has been arrested.

Shongwe is the police officer who is accused of murdering his girlfriend – a nurse who was based at Hlatikhulu Government Hospital. The nurse, Lindokuhle Dolly Mlangeni, died on December 26, 2018. The accused, who was out on bail, did not show up for the start of his trial on November 1, 2022. He also did not come to court on the following day and this resulted in Judge Cyril Maphanga issuing a warrant of arrest against him.  

Shongwe was reportedly arrested by Interpol South Africa (SA), while in Kokstad. He is currently being incarcerated in the neighbouring country, pending his extradition to the Kingdom of Eswatini. Kokstad is a town in the Harry Gwala District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal Province, SA. Following his arrest in SA, the office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) subsequently moved an application for his extradition in terms of the Extradition Act of 1968 and the Extradition Agreement between the two countries. Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other’s law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdictions and depends on the arrangements made between them.

Consent

The application is currently awaiting consent from that country’s minister of justice as per the procedure. Upon being extradited, Shongwe will first have to answer on a charge of contempt of court before the start of his initial trial.The charge of contempt of court emanates from his failure to avail himself to court, despite being served with papers to do so. When his trial was supposed to start last year, his representative, Advocate Lucas Maziya, who was instructed by Azi Hlatshwayo, told Judge Maphanga that they were having a bit of a problem with the accused. He revealed that they were not aware of his whereabouts, but he had assured them that he would be present in court.

Shongwe was granted bail after he filed a second application and told the court that he wanted to be released from custody to consult traditional healers due to a certain illness. His initial application for bail was dismissed by High Court Judge Maphanga. He filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, which he later withdrew. He then filed another application for bail at the High Court. The accused alleged that new circumstances had arisen on the basis of which he sought to be released from custody on bail. According to his indictment, 38 witnesses, most of whom are police officers, will testify. One of the witnesses, who is Shongwe’s friend, indicated that the accused allegedly told him that he wanted to take his own life, because he had done something terrible. This was after he allegedly killed his girlfriend Mlangeni.

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