Wiandre Pretorius, 41, a South African man named in a high-profile police corruption investigation, has died after reportedly shooting himself at a petrol station in Brakpan, east of Johannesburg.
Police said officers found Pretorius’s body with a firearm beside it at around 22:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Saturday. CCTV footage is being reviewed, and authorities are investigating reports of a confrontation with his fiancée before the incident.
Pretorius had previously claimed to have survived an assassination attempt and was a person of interest in the ongoing Madlanga Commission probe, which examines allegations of police corruption and the 2022 murder of Emmanuel Mbense. Pretorius was not a serving officer but had previously served as a police reservist.
Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, police spokesperson, noted that four of the 12 people originally identified as persons of interest in Mbense’s killing are now dead, with three killed “execution-style” in recent years. “The question is: are we dealing with a syndicate that is eliminating each other in relation to the Emmanuel Mbense murder? That is what our detectives are probing,” Mathe said.
Pretorius had also been questioned and had his firearms confiscated following the 2023 shooting death of Marius van der Merwe, who had testified as Witness D at the commission.
Authorities indicated that arrests in connection with Mbense’s murder are imminent, following an investigation by South Africa’s independent police watchdog.
