Bail hearing for 12 SANDF Special Forces operatives accused of murder, fraud continues

JOHANNESBURG - Twelve South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Special Forces operatives accused of murder and fraud are expected back at the Randburg Magistrates Court for a continuation of their bail hearing on Thursday.

This will be their third appearance in court since their arrest in June.

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They’re accused of orchestrating the 2023 murder of Hawks investigator Frans Mathipa amid his probe of the army unit’s alleged involvement in another double murder.

The 12 members of the SANDF special forces face as many counts of murder, fraud, theft and making false statements.

The youngest is a 30-year-old, and the eldest is a retired general and decorated army official.

In their bail statements on Tuesday, they told the court they are upstanding citizens and denied having a hand in the assassination of Mathipa and the disappearance and murder of a foreign national believed to have links to a terrorist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Abdella Abadiga and his bodyguard were abducted from the Mall of Africa in Midrand in December 2022.

Mathipa’s investigation of the pair’s kidnapping led them to the SANDF Special Forces.

Mathipa was in the process of securing a Section 205 subpoena to investigate the operatives when he was ambushed on his way to a meeting, allegedly called by the SANDF to negotiate the details of the information he wanted.

According to organisation Open Secrets, this includes the tracking company name and records of four vehicles, a list of SANDF members, together with their personal particulars – their ID and cellphone numbers – who were conducting a training exercise on 29 December 2022 at the Mall of Africa and the operational plan of the exercise.