Arrested: Police Officer Found with Murdered Kabaza Rider’s Motorcycle

BLANTYRE / ZOMBA —When 27-year-old Fadreck Majawa Mapondo vanished into the night with three unknown passengers, his killers left behind a cold trail, a grieving family, and a missing King Lion motorcycle. Three weeks later, a covert sting in the heart of Blantyre revealed a disturbing breach of trust: the dead rider’s stolen machine was in the hands of a serving police officer.

The officer, identified as Ndaona Hebu, stationed in Machinga, was taken into custody after a weeks-long covert investigation led by the bike’s owner, Madalitso Mada Mateyu, and local contacts.

On Wednesday, 16 September 2026, Mapondo mounted his King Lion motorcycle at Ekhaya in Zomba after three men hired him for a trip to Chingale. The journey became his last; he was found dead the following day with severe head injuries, his phone and motorcycle gone.

Found Murdered; Fadreck Majawa Mapondo.

While official leads went cold, Mateyu the registered owner who had leased the motorcycle to Mapondo refused to let the case die. Holding the original ownership paperwork, engine numbers, and chassis documentation, Mateyu began scouring social media marketplaces, suspecting the stolen motorcycle would eventually surface online.

On 3 October, the persistence paid off.

Mateyu spotted a listed King Lion motorcycle on Facebook pages run by Hebu, a Machinga-based police officer who doubles as an online second-hand motorcycle agent. Although key parts of the bike had been modified to disguise its identity, specific custom modifications and distinct features Mateyu had personally installed remained visible.

The persistence paid off. A screenshot of Hebu advertising the said Motorcycle.

Disguising his identity, Mateyu initiated a private inbox chat with Hebu under the pretext of buying the motorcycle. To avoid raising suspicion, Mateyu feigned interest from Ntcheu rather than Zomba.

Unaware he was negotiating with the murder victim’s associate, the officer detailed his travel route, disclosing plans to move from Mwima through Phalombe before arriving in Blantyre to finalize a sale.

Acting quickly, Mateyu coordinated with an undercover contact in Blantyre to arrange an in-person meeting with Hebu under the guise of completing the transaction.

When Hebu arrived at the rendezvous point in Blantyre, he was met not just by a prospective buyer, but by a team of police officers waiting in ambush.

Hebu attempted to resist and justify his possession of the motorcycle, but a direct inspection on the spot sealed his fate. The chassis number, engine number, and hidden identification marks matched Mateyu’s legal paperwork down to the final digit.

Upon his arrest, Hebu maintained that he is strictly a trader of second-hand motorcycles who buys and resells bikes, denying any direct knowledge of or connection to the fatal ambush in Chingale.

Hebu- Maintains he is strictly a trader of second hand motorcycles. Even his Facebook page says it all

Following his arrest in Blantyre, Hebu was transferred back to Zomba Police Station for further interrogation, where the investigation took an immediate breakthrough.

During questioning by Zomba detectives, Hebu named the individual who allegedly sold him the stolen motorcycle. Acting on this lead, law enforcement swiftly tracked down and arrested the suspect in Machinga.

At the time of publishing, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers from Zomba have dispatched a team to Machinga to pick up the newly arrested suspect and bring him to Zomba Police Station for joint interrogation as investigators piece together the network behind Mapondo’s murder continues.