SA acting ambassador withdrawn after murder claim

In an astonishing claim emanating from Sudan, a Daily Maverick report relates how the acting ambassador’s husband allegedly hired hitmen to kill the embassy’s intelligence officer – and to murder two local women as ‘training’. It notes that when Sudanese police arrested two local men for what at first they thought were ritual murders, the men claimed they had lured the women into the apartment of SA’s deputy ambassador to Sudan and murdered them as a ‘training’ exercise. The murders were a test to prepare them for their real assignment – to assassinate the intelligence officer at the SA embassy. The DM report says SA’s deputy ambassador to Sudan, Zabantu Ngcobo, and her partner are now being investigated for allegedly hiring the embassy driver and his accomplice to kill the intelligence officer because he was sending home damaging reports about Ngcobo. Ngcobo was acting ambassador at the time as the ambassador’s post was vacant. Sudanese authorities contacted SA authorities who exercised the right of Ngcobo and her partner to diplomatic immunity against arrest and prosecution abroad and took them back home, promising to co-operate with the Sudanese authorities in investigating the allegations against them. Lunga Ngqengelele, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations & Co-operation (Dirco) reportedly told the DM: ‘All I can say about this issue is that Dirco is aware of it and our police are investigating it and co-operating with the Sudanese police. Unfortunately we are unable to say beyond until the investigations are finalised….’