BRAKPAN - A deadly trail of deaths has police on high alert.
Wiandre Pretorius, one of the key suspects in the murder of Emmanuel Mbense, has committed suicide.
His name was dropped at the Madlanga Commission.
The 41-year-old is now the fourth person to have died following Mbense's death.
Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says the investigation is intensifying to prevent further deaths.
Police say Pretorius was a person of interest in the murder case of Witness D or Marius 'Vlam' van der Merwe.
Van der Merwe implicated Pretorius as one of those involved in the murder of Mbense.
He was killed in 2022 in Brakpan, and his body was later dumped in a dam.
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Pretorius' suicide was caught on CCTV footage on the forecourt of a petrol station.
On Saturday evening at around 10.45pm, he can be seen walking with another person to a car.
He then shoots himself in the upper body.
Sources told eNCA that Pretorius and his partner were arguing before the shooting.
READ: Man implicated by Witness D at Madlanga survives hail of bullets
Police have also discovered a rather worrying trail.
"What we know is that there were 12 persons of interest that both IPID and SAPS have identified as being behind the murder of Emmanuel Mbense," said Mathe.
"And Wiandre Pretorius was one of those that was identified as a person of interest, together with the witness D.
"What is of concern and of interest is that of those 12, eight are still alive."
IPID finalised the Mbense case three years after the murder and has now sent the docket to the NPA.
Anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee says that is worrying.
An inquest has been opened into the matter.
- eNCA's Pule Letshwiti-Jones reports.