The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela has expressed her appreciation on the arrest of three suspects, Fortune Nzima, 32, Tebogo Moshia, 28 and Bonny Motsepe 28 for truck hijacking which occurred on 18 March 2022 in Middelburg.
According to report, on the said day around 19:30, the truck driver alleges that he was driving on the N11 with one passenger when he stopped at a filling station to buy something while also waiting for his girlfriend. When he went back to the truck, three men followed him. He thought that maybe it is members from the Taxi Association as his girlfriend was already in the truck with the other passenger. Two of the suspects pointed them with firearms and instructed the three to move at the back where they were tied up with cables. One of the suspects drove the truck between Mandela Drive and Cowan Ntuli Street together with his two accomplices. One of the suspects apparently received a call and told the others that police are behind them. They then stopped, alighted from the truck and fled on foot into the nearby bushes.
Police pursued the suspects and managed to apprehend them. A firearm was seized.
A case of truck hijacking was opened at Middelburg Police Station. Investigation also continues regarding a second firearm that they could not find as the victims were pointed with two firearms.
The suspects appeared before the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court on 22 March 2022 and they were remanded in custody until 29 March 2022 for a formal bail application.
