Special forces on trial
A top detective was shot dead two days after warning the military would kill him. Was Frans Mathipa murdered for investigating the alleged crimes of South Africa鈥檚 special forces?
South African police detective Frans Mathipa told his boss he feared that he would be killed by the country鈥檚 military. Two days later he was found shot dead in his car by the side of a motorway.
At the time of his death, Mathipa had been investigating whether special forces soldiers were behind the disappearance of Abdella Abadigga, a suspected member of so-called Islamic State or ISIS, and his bodyguard. So was Mathipa killed, as his colleagues believe, because of fears about what his investigation threatened to reveal?
Dino Mahtani and Yeshiel Panchia investigate an extraordinary case that sets one arm of the South African state against another.
Presenter: Dino Mahtani
Producer: Ed Main
Executive editors: Nick Norman-Butler and Andy Bell
Editor: Rebecca Henschke
Studio manager: Sam Dickinson
Archive: SABC and Facebook
Last on
Broadcasts
- Thu 20 Aug 2026 01:32GMT麻豆社 World Service
- Thu 20 Aug 2026 08:32GMT麻豆社 World Service
- Thu 20 Aug 2026 19:06GMT麻豆社 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Sat 22 Aug 2026 23:32GMT麻豆社 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, Australasia, East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
Sun 23 Aug 2026 04:32GMTLive News- Sun 23 Aug 2026 04:32GMT麻豆社 World Service Australasia
- Sun 23 Aug 2026 13:06GMT麻豆社 World Service News Internet
- Sun 23 Aug 2026 22:32GMT麻豆社 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only