Four men accused of conducting several robberies across Cape Town in 2015 will be offered plea deals in the Bellville Regional Court.
Also read: Man sentenced to 25 years for robbery that killed a sergeant
Eight years ago, a group of six men were arrested for a spate of cellphone shop robberies and the bombing of an ATM. Vusi Mafu, Musa Mthembu, Kwanele Mayo, Xolisani Nenemba, Mthunzi Ncube and Stanley Masuku were accused of robbing Cape Town shops at gunpoint in 2015.
According to News24, the group started with Vodacom at the Gardens Centre shopping complex on 5 February. On 18 February, they targeted the Telkom store in Malmesbury and the Cell C shop in Brackenfell. In March of that year, they bombed an ATM opposite Spar in Bellville.
Four of the men appeared in the Bellville Regional Court on Friday. Ncube passed away in March due to natural causes, while Nememba absconded.
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Prosecutor Mervyn Menigo says the case would be separated into three separate plea agreements as the initial investigating officer, Charl Kinnear, was assassinated in 2020 and the previous magistrate recused himself. Another contributing factor to the delay in the case was the COVID-19 pandemic.
The State also had to mobilise analysts to confirm aspects of the evidence that Kinnear would have presented in testimony.
Among the charges, the men are accused of bombing an ATM at the Old Oak Centre in Bellville on 4 March 2015.
Video footage from a security camera showed a man walking up to the ATM, appearing to make a typical transaction. After a few minutes, he kneels down, does something at the bottom of the machine, and leaves.
A few seconds later, the ATM blew open, sending debris and shopping baskets across the floor. The man who had been at the ATM returned and started to remove something from the cash dispenser. Another man appeared and held up a gun. Two men were arrested on the day of the bombing.
The indictment further includes charges of aggravated robbery, as the men used firearms to threaten people in the shop to give them the money and threaten people in the immediate vicinity. In another instance, a vehicle was also stolen from a woman at gunpoint.
In addition, the men face charges of possession of explosives and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
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