A man from Setswetla Informal Settlement has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for robbery with aggravated circumstances.
Nelson Mathabela was sentenced in the Alex Magistrates’ Court for the crime committed on 14 December last year on a couple and a relative who run a cross-border transport business.
The court heard that Mathabela, with an accomplice still at large by the name of Patio, robbed the three of two Nokia cellphones, two passports and R6 000 in cash while they were ferrying goods to Zimbabwe.
This after the victims stopped on the main road in the settlement to retrieve an item from the back of the van they were driving. As they were closing the doors of the van to drive off, the female passenger felt someone pulling at the door and saw Mathabela who pulled out a gun and demanded money and their belongings.
She resisted as he pulled at her handbag, but the strap eventually broke. He then took the bag and escaped. The men in the vehicle chased Mathabela’s, but his accomplice threw a brick at the husband, forcing them to seek assistance from the community. The group gathered from the community, then followed Mathabela and found him dancing in a nearby tavern.
When Mathabela recognised them, he shouted ‘shot, shot’ to try deflect attention from himself, but the group apprehended him and dragged him into the street and the police were called. On searching him, they found a toy gun but none of the stolen items which he claimed had been taken by his accomplice.
