FREE STATE – Simon Van Wyk (47) and Relebohile Patience Ntliziywane (32) appeared before the Bloemfontein Magistrate Court on Monday, 14 June 2021 where they were facing charges of armed robbery and Fraud.

Van Wyk and Ntliziywane were arrested on Friday, 11 June 2021 during a joint operation conducted by the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team  and Crime Intelligence as well as Tactical Response Team (TRT) all based in Bloemfontein. Both the accused were arrested in their respective residence in Heidedal and Bloemanda.

Their arrests originates from an incident which took place on Monday, 31 May 2021 where two members of Crime Intelligence in Welkom came to fetch money from Secret Service Account (SSA) Bloemfontein. It is alleged that the two police officials after fetching the money 16 km out on the Bultfontein road they were pulled over by the suspects who were driving a sedan vehicle without number plates and with blue lights. The two officers stopped the vehicle and the accused pointed them with firearms and requested the money from them.

It is further alleged that they opened the boot of the state vehicle and took the black bag containing SSA money to the value of R134 000-00. The handbags and cell phones of the police official were also taken during the robbery. The accused also utilised the bank cards of one of the Police official after the robbery.

The vehicle Golf GTI that was used for robbery was seized during their arrest. The case against  Van Wyk and Ntliziywane has been postponed to Friday, 18 June 2021 for formal bail application.

Source: South African Police Service