The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela has commended members of the Border Policing that arrested two suspects, one being a 37-year-old man in a bus at Emahlathini soon after he allegedly robbed passengers of their personal items at gunpoint inside the said bus. The second suspect is a woman (27) who was arrested at Jeppes Reef with dagga worth almost R10 000 in street value. Both suspects were nabbed on Saturday, 09 March 2024.
According to a report about the first incident, subsequent to the said robbery which was staged inside the bus, Police were somehow notified about it and they immediately responded.
The astute members stopped the said bus and began a search party with the aim to locate their suspect.
It was during this time when they caught one of the passengers with a firearm however it blows one’s mind that there was not even one ammunition during the time when Police confiscated the weapon.
After failing to produce a firearm licence, members engaged victims and began adding the dots which made them realize that the man could be the one they were looking for, hence they locked him up and charged him for illegal possession of unlicenced firearm as well as for robbery.
The firearm will also be taken for ballistic testing to determine whether it was not previously used in the commission of crime elsewhere hence at this point Police cannot rule out possibilities of adding further charges against him, pending further investigation.
Meanwhile members from Border Policing at Jeppes Reef were conducting stop and searches duties on the R570 Road and came across a 27-year-old female in possession of 2.35 kg’s of dagga. It was at this point when the woman, who originates from the Kingdom of Eswatini was arrested then charged for unlawful possession of dagga. The estimated street value of the dagga is at about R9 870-00.
Both suspects are expected to separately appear in court, one at the Piet Retief Magistrate’s Court whilst the other at the Nkomazi Magistrate’s Court in Tonga on Monday, 11 March 2024 respectively.