Kyle Cowan – News24 Investigations
Within hours of Cloete and Thomas Murray being shot on the afternoon of Saturday 18 March 2023, News24 was on the scene and started an investigation that remains ongoing.
In this series, we take you back to our reporting over the past two and a half years; a catalogue of investigative reporting that has shown how the police have failed in the case, from leaving critical evidence in the car to failing to interview key suspects.
We trace the threads of this brazen crime from inception to the latest developments – a new investigation by a new team. The investigation into the murders of this father and son, who performed vital work liquidating some of the most controversial estates over the past two decades, has highlighted a series of police missteps and asked difficult questions about their ability and willingness to solve murder cases.
It also traces the Murray family’s struggle to obtain justice and how their anger has grown with every passing week as police fail to interview suspects identified more than two years ago.
It is their hope that, with determined investigators, the story painstakingly told by News24 over nearly three years will now become a story of justice.
Intricate web of cops, lawyers, underworld figures behind the scenes
Major General Feroz Khan, a top officer in the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Intelligence division, is linked to several key figures behind the scenes of the investigation into the assassinations of Cloete and Thomas Murray.
How top cops failed to act on money flows possibly linked to double hit
Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya and Major General Richard Shibiri, two of the country’s most senior police officers, oversaw investigators who sat on critical evidence linked to the murder of liquidators Cloete and Thomas Murray for two years.
Police restart investigation from scratch 2 years after Murray father, son murdered
The investigation into the murders of Cloete and Thomas Murray is being restarted from scratch, more than two and a half years after the father and son were killed in a brazen shooting.
Suspect in double murder of Cloete, Thomas Murray killed in apparent hit
One of the men believed to have been involved in the double murder of Cloete and Thomas Murray has been killed in a shooting outside Netcare Milpark Hospital. Burnett Benacoba Hermanus was on the top of the police's list of suspects as the gunman in the brazen assassinations of the Murrays more than two and a half years ago.
REPORTING NOTES: How we are investigating the murders of Cloete and Thomas Murray
Tracking the final day of Cloete and Thomas Murray and a behind the scenes look at how News24 has been unravelling their assassination in the year after they were killed in broad daylight on the busiest road in the country.
Police examine wrong Ford Ranger in N1 killings of father and son
More than two and a half years after the high-profile murders, police forensics will now be examining a Ranger bakkie in the hope of recovering valuable clues to assist in an otherwise faltering and slow probe. A News24 investigation shows they are looking at a car that has multiple similarities with the vehicle used by the killers, but detailed examination reveals it is a different car.
CCTV footage exposes third suspect in case - but police are yet to act
CCTV footage revealed a third man was involved in the murders of Cloete and Thomas Murray, and it has been confirmed police have yet to interview the driver of the car, despite news reports one year ago highlighting this key failure in the investigation.
R450m in Investec loans meant for Ghana projects used to fund Singhs' lifestyle
It took just a few hours for Singh siblings Rushil and Nishani to move a $10.7-million loan from their Ghanaian company's bank account to one of their personal accounts - and then just a few hours more to use $1.5 million to buy an ultra-rare McLaren hypercar.
The Singhs' R1bn Ghanaian empire that the Murrays threatened to destroy
News24 uncovered an expansive web of corruption spun by Rushil and Nishani Singh in Ghana, where they secured a handful of road and hospital construction contracts, worth at least R1 billion, and maintained favour by paying at least R50 million in bribes to influential politicians in that country.
Five McLarens and the Bad Boys Porsche: How the Singhs blew R120m on cars
Rushil and Nishani Singh blew more than R120 million on ultra-rare cars, spending cash loaned from Investec Bank and meant for road construction projects in Ghana, to assemble a fleet of cars any of which would be the envy of petrol heads everywhere.
Inside police investigation and turf wars that have delayed justice
In the immediate aftermath of the Murrays' deaths, a task team comprising detectives from the Hawks was assigned to assist Gauteng police detectives. But the Hawks officials were booted out at the request of Brigadier Pulane Gopane, the head of OCIU Gauteng, allegedly for leaking information to the media, an accusation that was made unofficially and had apparently not been substantiated.
It is not being treated as a priority case - family speaks for the first time
Cloete Murray's surviving son, James Murray, and Monet Murray, Thomas' young widow, spoke out for the first time in a year, since delivering eulogies at the funeral, in an exclusive interview with News24 just days before the one-year anniversary of the killings.
The key person of interest police identified, but have not interviewed a year later
The police identified a key person of interest, but have failed to interview him more than a year after Cloete and Thomas Murray were murdered in broad daylight on the busiest road in the country.
Cloete and Thomas Murray were stalked by their killers for hours, from Waterkloof to Melrose Arch
Cloete and Thomas Murray were followed by a car and a motorcycle from Pretoria to Johannesburg and were watched for hours before they were gunned down just after 14:00 on 18 March on the N1 North just after the New Road bridge.
A McLaren and fraud: The R200m case Cloete and Thomas Murray were working on the day they were killed
Within 20 minutes after Cloete and Thomas Murray left Melrose Arch in Johannesburg at just before 14:00 on Saturday, an unknown number of gunmen would open fire on their Toyota Prado in broad daylight as they drove along the N1 North on the way back to Pretoria.
9 bullets, blood and shattered glass: Inside the car in which Cloete and Thomas Murray were killed
One of the bullets that tore through the Toyota Prado of Cloete and Thomas Murray shattered the rear window and entered through the back of the driver's side head rest, one of at least eight expertly placed shots that ultimately claimed the lives of one of the country's most feared corruption busters and his son.
High profile political figures were in the cross hairs of liquidator and his son
High profile political figures were in the cross hairs of Cloete and Thomas Murray - a father and son team who worked on some of the country's most contentious insolvency cases and were both gunned down in a brazen hit on Saturday afternoon.
The Lead: SARS guns for company linked to Mashatile’s sons. PLUS: Murray murders case restarts
Kyle Cowan, is live with The Lead in this edition for not one, but two stories. In our trending topic, and following the murders of top liquidators, the father-and-son duo of Cloete and Thomas Murray, Cowan tells us that Gauteng police have now agreed to restart their probe into this curious case... 960 days later!
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Journalist: Kyle Cowan
Design: Sharlene Rood
News24 Production Editor: Hanlie Gouws
Image credits: Kyle Cowan/News24; Supplied.
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