POLOKO TAU
AN ACCUSED in a case in which three Moroka police officers and two former reservists are accused of robbing a Soweto taxi association of R160 000 has turned state witness, implicating all the other accused.
This was said by the State in the Protea Magistrate’s Court, where nine suspects were applying for bail yesterday.
Police say the accused, some in police reflector vests, last month presented themselves as police officers when they approached four security guards at a service station in White City, Jabavu, where the Witwatersrand African Taxi Association (Wata) office is situated.
The guards were allegedly tied up and made to lie down at gunpoint while the suspects opened a safe with a grinder and stole the cash.
Investigating officer Captain Solomon Raphadu said in an affidavit opposing bail that a marked police vehicle and a private vehicle were used during the robbery.
He said the police car had been booked out in the name of Tactical Response Team constables and Trevor Mbhalati, 27, and Warren Tshitakole, 29, who are among the accused in the case.
Raphadu said the tracking system placed the police vehicle and another vehicle belonging to Sergeant Brenda Letsiela, 36, and her partner Frans Ndlayane, 54, who are also suspects in the case, at the the crime scene.
Charges were withdrawn against former reservist Constable Bongani Mpakane, who the prosecutor, Danette van Schalkwyk, said had made a full confession in which he implicated all the other suspects.
Van Schalkwyk said Mpakane was being considered for the witness protection programme.
Mpakane and former reservist constable Zakhele Sikhosana, 27, were dismissed from the police service following their implication in a crime in which a Pakistani-owned shop in Langlaagte was robbed of R90 000 last year.
Letsiela said in her affidavit yesterday that she was arrested for the same robbery and had been out on R2 000 bail when she was arrested for the Wata office robbery.
She also stated that she had been on paid suspension pending the outcome of the disciplinary hearing by her employer, the SA Police Service.
Mbhalati also has a pending case of attempted murder for allegedly shooting Jose Dionesio, who was riding a bike in Protea Glen on December 1.
The other suspects are Letsiela’s cousin Musina Silasi, 57, her brother-in-law Richard Funani, 40, and another man, Frans Madondo, 49.
All eight suspects testified in their bail application that they intended to plead not guilty and challenged the State to provide evidence linking them to the charges.
Raphadu said the same modus operandi in the Wata robbery was used in the Langlaagte incident, where the suspects also presented themselves as police officers before robbing the victims.
The hearing continues.