Speaker notes by General Fannie Masemola, Brakpan
We have earlier this evening met with the investigating team on the murder case of Mr Marius Van Der Merwe together with IPID that has been investigating the murder case of Duduza where an African male’s body was found dumped in a dam in 2022.
We are meeting with the family of Mr Marius Van Der Merwe to brief them on how far we are with investigations into his murder.
We will be confirming to the family, that we do believe that we have found the vehicle used in the murder of Mr Marius Van Der Merwe.
On the evening of the murder of the deceased, video footage shows a white bakkie pulling up behind his vehicle as he was about to open the gate to his residence and he was thereafter shot several times and died on the scene.
At this stage, we do believe that the white Chevrolet bakkie that was abandoned in Alexandra township, right here in Johannesburg fits the description of the vehicle that we have been looking for. According to a police preliminary investigation, the vehicle was abandoned on Saturday morning by two men, just hours after Van Der Merwe was shot and killed.
Our crime scene experts as well as our vehicle crime investigation unit were at the scene in Alexandra where the car was found. The car was found on a gravel dead end road, amongst shacks. We have taken the car to our forensic laboratory for further analysis.
We have three persons of interest that we believe can assist in solving the murder case of Marius Van Der Merwe. We are closing in on these suspects as our investigations reach a very advanced and sensitive stage.
Linked to the murder of Mr Marius Van Der Merwe, we are investigating two other cases which is the murder case of Duduza which I earlier mentioned and the attempted murder of Mr Marius Van Der Merwe in September 2025 in which he indicated that there were two white males that were following him in a Mahindra Bakkie.
We are still looking for the murder weapon that was used in the commission of this crime.
The possible motive is still under investigation, and we are not going to divulge any information on the possible motive for now until arrests are made and the case is in court.
On the safety and security of officials and witnesses involved in the Madlanga Commission – the NATJOINTS and the commission officials met over the weekend and discussions are being finalised on the implementation of the enhanced security plan.
