Dingilizwe Ntuli/Paidamoyo Muzulu

A PROMINENT foreign private investigator says the investigation into the mysterious death of former army chief and influential Zanu PF politburo member Solomon Mujuru may have been bungled from the onset.

According to Gerhard Botes, an investigator at Scisco Consulting, a forensic, intelligence and risk management solutions firm based in Pretoria, South Africa, too many errors were committed early on in the investigation that may prevent the actual causes of death and fire to be determined.

Scisco Consulting was formed for the “purpose of supplying an up-market investigative service,” mainly to the corporate sector.

Botes said bungled investigations of such high-profile cases potentially led to horrible consequences.

He said part of the problem with the investigation occurred when the police failed to immediately secure the scene upon arrival and this continued to provide fodder for endless speculation. The scene where Mujuru died was left open to anybody to come and view and even interfere with the situation if they so wished.

“It doesn’t matter whether or not foul play is suspected but the scene should have been cordoned off and an investigating team put in place to give a report without any hindrance,” said Botes.

Botes said as a result of the failure by police to secure the farmhouse, forensic investigators were left with little to work with because the scene could have been cleaned up and vital pieces of evidence compromised.

He said any physical barriers like vehicles or tapes that help protect the scene should have been established by those first to respond, after which one officer should have been designated as the scene security officer.

The scene security officer would have been responsible for preventing access to the crime scene by curious onlookers.

Because only in rare situations are crime scene investigators first to respond, Botes said their first step upon arrival is to evaluate the established secure areas and change them if necessary. 

The forensic investigators are also the only ones who determine a path to enter and exit the scene, avoiding any pathway that may have possibly been used by trespassers, and thereby preserving the scene from contamination.

Anyone arriving at a possible crime scene can alter or change the scene and its evidence, so access to it should be restricted and, if possible, prevented except for essential crime scene personnel only.

Thereafter, Botes said, searching the area for any biological evidence should have begun, with forensic experts thoroughly combing the secured scene for any possible leads to help them make a concrete determination.

“A contamination log or security log should have been kept to record all entries and exits from the areas of the secured scene. The use of a multi-level security approach could also have successfully prevented unwanted entries,” said Botes.

“Crime scene photographs as well as a video recording of the crime scene should have been made in order to use as evidence in court, reconstruction, or evidence searching. Only after all necessary photographs had been taken could the investigation into the possible cause of the fire then begin,” Botes said.

He said there was a systematic approach taken when investigating such cases and in most cases experts were called in to give an opinion on the possible cause of the fire.

“If the fire started as a result of a candle as has been initially speculated, candlelight specialists should be called in to determine how the fire started and where it started. The same is done where a fire is caused by an electrical or gas fault. Experts in those fields should be called in to make proper determinations,” he said.

Botes expressed surprise that Mujuru was positively identified even before any tests were carried out on the charred remains found after the fire had been put out, saying this was a strange phenomena.

“It can’t just be on face value but through DNA. As a former military man, his DNA record wouldn’t have been hard to find,” Botes said.
A local police investigator concurred with Botes, saying the police were negligent in their duty and completely failed to follow basic crime scene procedures.

The detective said instead of performing their task, the police at the scene appeared awestruck and overwhelmed by the presence of political bigwigs and senior law enforcement officials.

As a result, the detective said, any forensic results emanating from this were highly likely to be contaminated because people who had nothing to do with the investigations were allowed free access onto the scene.

Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka confirmed to the Zimbabwe Independent the procedures of securing a crime scene and conducting of investigations.

“Securing the crime scene varies by the nature of the case being investigated. However, steps are taken to make sure that the evidence being sought is not compromised by generally cordoning off the area,” Mandipaka said.

He said investigators do observations and gather evidence that would be processed at police laboratories by forensic experts.
“The investigators would, among others, include pathologists and other forensic experts who comb the scene and take evidence to the laboratory,” said Mandipaka.

He said police had enough capacity to conduct credible forensic investigations and in areas they lacked, they “engaged services from other government departments.”

While Zimbabweans await results of forensic investigations into Mujuru’s mysterious death, speculation into the cause of death continues to swirl across the length and breadth of the country, putting the investigators under pressure to come up with credible and convincing findings.

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