OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday
THREE police officers and eight other men have been convicted in South Africa’s second biggest cash-in-transit heist, in which they made off with R17.4m and left two security guards dead.
The Pretoria High Court convicted the men of carrying out the robbery by ambushing two cash transfer trucks with automatic rifles in July 1997 on the road between Pretoria and Bronkhorstspruit.
Judge Chris Botha found policemen Alfred Makafola, Reginald Ngobese and Lancelot Shezi, all from townships outside Johannesburg, guilty on 10 charges of murder, attempted murder, robbery and car theft.
Shezi was involved both in planning and carrying out the heist, while Makafola and Ngobese used a police vehicle to drive the loot from the scene.
Botha said it was clear that the heist was planned well in advance and that those who took part in the planning and the execution were equally guilty.
He convicted Dennis Ngobeze, Lucas Yende, Bongani Mabasu and Sipho Shongwe on the same charges as the policemen. Three fellow robbers – Oupa Seane, Robinson Mathozi and Ernest Shandu – were also found guilty on the additional charge of possessing stolen firearms which were used in the heist.
Another, Thabo Stimela, was convicted for possession of stolen property.
The judgement was delivered under tight security. Two armed guards were standing just below Botha’s bench while he read it, and some 40 policemen kept watch in and outside the courtroom.
The judge acquitted three suspects for lack of evidence. One is, however, awaiting trial on another cash heist near Pretoria in which robbers netted some R12.5m.
The Bronkhorstspruit verdict follows a lengthy trial that was dogged by delays, partly because three of the suspects escaped from court cells in February last year.
All three were recaptured and one of them, Mathozi, was so badly wounded during a shoot-out with the police that he was confined to a wheelchair. He was nonetheless brought to court in leg-irons.
The biggest ever cash-in-transit heist in South Africa happened near Pinetown in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province in 1994 and also involved three policemen. Some R32m was stolen. – AFP