SANGOMA Mavuso Gqola gave his cellphone to cops last May after they told him they needed it for investigations.
Gqola obliged because he had received death threats from people who wanted him to stop campaigning for the local government elections at the time.
The callers, who allegedly threatened to shoot him, also tried to extort money.
But since May, Gqola has been trying to get his cellphone back.
“Detectives handling my case have been telling me stories.”
He said he was paying the monthly instalment on his Samsung S20 that he was not using, and cops were taking too long to give it back.
“I’ve spent R30 000 on instalments. How can cops take eight months with a phone that I’m supposed to be using?”
Gqola said if something had happened to the phone, he had no option but to ask cops to pay for it.
He said though it had been in their hands all along, no one had yet been arrested.
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Captain Frederick van Wyk confirmed that the phone was taken.
“The Samsung S20 he refers to was sent to the provincial operational command centre to collect and download the necessary information that would form part of the investigation. Then it was sent back to the investigating officer late last year,” he said.
Van Wyk said the docket was sent to the senior state prosecutor, and investigations were still ongoing.
Gqola said the investigating officer told him the phone had not been returned.
“I will fight them till the end. This is my phone. What if I did not have another phone? Does that mean I would have had to wait all these months to be able to communicate?”