Broadcast DetailsShow: 3rd DegreeEpisode Title: Killer Cop
Date: Tuesday, 30 May, 2006
Time: 20h00
Channel: eTV
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Forty- two-year-old David “Chippa” Mateane appeared to have it all.
He was a detective in the SA Police force who’d steadily moved up the ranks and had recently been promoted to Superintendent. He was living with his girlfriend and her family on a plot in Tarlton on the West Rand.
On Monday 3 April, he came home from work and had an argument with his girlfriend, Poppy Mosia. The fight led to a murderous spree. When it was over he had cold-bloodedly wiped out half of his lover’s family in Tarlton, and four of his fellow officers at the Kagiso police station.
Mateane’s death toll includes his girlfriend of nine years, her only daughter, niece and one-year-old grandson. Mateane’s rampage culminated in his own death at the hands of his colleagues.
Questions remain: What motivated Mateane to embark on this killing spree? What could possibly have sparked such an intense rage in this successful police superintendent?
On 3rd Degree this week, we speak exclusively to the survivors and attempt to understand what happened on Mateane’s night of terror and why he snapped so suddenly.