Three of six SANDF Special Forces members whose bail was revoked have yet to hand themselves over. No trial date has been set, more than three years after Hawks investigator Frans Mathipa was shot dead on the N1.
Three years after Hawks investigator Lieutenant-Colonel Frans Mathipa was shot dead on the N1 near Hammanskraal, the case against 12 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Special Forces members has yet to reach trial. Some of the accused have not complied with a High Court order to go to jail.
What the court ordered
The Randburg Magistrate’s Court granted all 12 accused R10,000 bail each in July 2025, finding the State’s case “weak and circumstantial”. The State appealed. On 16 January 2026, the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg revoked bail for accused one to six and ordered them to report to prison by 23 January. Bail for accused seven to twelve was extended on the same conditions, according to the National Prosecuting Authority.
The six whose bail was revoked are Dawid Mogaditswe, Kgosietsile Letsatsi, Samkelo Ngwenya, Boitumelo Nteleza, Paulos Matlou and Major Sunnybooi Wambi. They did not surrender, and warrants of arrest were issued. In May, Judge Shanaaz Mia dismissed their application for leave to appeal.
The Randburg court separately ruled that the other six accused, including Brigadier General Solomon Lechoenyo, who now heads Special Forces, had not breached their reporting conditions. They remain on bail.
Reporting based on prosecution files seen by the BBC says three of the six, including Wambi, still have not surrendered. Their lawyers have cited mental health treatment, and the military has declined to compel them. This reporting dates from August 2026.
The State’s case
Prosecutors allege Mathipa was lured to a petrol station in Lynnwood, Pretoria, on 6 August 2023, and that a black BMW without number plates then followed his state vehicle onto the N1. He was shot by an occupant, and his vehicle overturned. The court heard that the burner phone allegedly used to lure him was found in the BMW. It also heard that the unit allegedly staged a hijacking to dispose of the car.
Mathipa was investigating the 29 December 2022 abduction of Ethiopian nationals Abdella Abadiga, an alleged Islamic State financier and recruiter, and his bodyguard Kadir Jemal Abotese from the Mall of Africa in Midrand. Open Secrets reports that he applied in June 2023 for a Section 205 subpoena for the cellphone records of SANDF members present that day. The State says this is why he was killed. The accused deny involvement.
Threats and charges
Police documents obtained by the BBC say Special Forces members warned investigators that any officer assigned to the case would meet the same fate as Mathipa. In July 2025 the State also told the Randburg court the accused had approached a hitman against the new lead investigator.
The accused face charges including murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder, defeating the ends of justice, fraud and theft. A front company linked to Special Forces is a 13th accused. The BBC reports that vehicles registered to Peters Communications Trust were used in the Mall of Africa operation.
