FREE STATE – A 39-year-old suspect is expected to appear before the Bloemfontein Magistrates’ court today where he will be facing charges of armed robbery and fraud.

He was arrested on Saturday, 20 November 2021 by the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team together with Crime Intelligence (CI) and Tactical Response Team (TRT) all based in Bloemfontein. He was arrested whilst doing his parole duties at Selosesha Police Station for an attempted murder case where he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

His arrest originates from an incident which took place on Monday, 31 May 2021 where two members of Crime Intelligence in Welkom came to collect money from Secret Service Account (SSA) Bloemfontein. It is alleged that the two police officials, after collecting the money, about 16 km out on the Bultfontein road were pulled over by the suspects who were driving a sedan without number plates and with blue lights. The two officers stopped the vehicle and the suspect together with other three accused, Simon Van Wyk, Teboho Jonas, Relebohile Patience Ntliziywane 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 officials were also taken during the robbery. The suspect and the accused also utilised the bank cards of one of the police officials after the robbery.

Source: South African Police Service