The investigation into the Naka Drotské shooting has come under scrutiny after police asked Os du Randt via a Whatsapp message to preserve evidence.
The former Bok hooker was shot three times at his brother Tinus’ smallholding in Kameeldrift, outside of Pretoria.
But while general major André Wiese, the Pretoria-East station commander, says they are making progress with the investigation after following up on several leads, the Drotské family and AfriForum have slammed the SAPS’ handling of the matter.
According to Rapport newspaper, the SAPS allegedly failed to preserve the bullets after they were removed from Drotské’s body, and instead sent a text message to Du Randt in which he was asked to safeguard the bullets because they might be used as evidence.
Tinus also revealed that the police only contacted him eight days after the incident to ask what clothes his brother was wearing because ‘it doesn’t play a prominent role’ in the investigation. Tinus refutes that claim because he believes the intruders’ DNA samples are on Naka’s clothes because of their physical altercation.
Meanwhile, the family claims they were not made aware of the fact that people were taken in for questioning and later released again.
AfriForum has now written a letter to Wiese, accusing the SAPS of not following protocol and failing to do their job properly.
‘This investigation is a mess,’ said AfriForum’s head of community safety Ian Cameron. ‘How can they ask a citizen to look after evidence? They should have arranged with the hospital to keep the bullets. They can’t expect a citizen to do their job for them.’
Photo: Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images
