Five men were sentenced by the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court to lengthy jail terms for a botched armed robbery.
Three were nabbed in a police dragnet within the premises and the other two as they attempted to get way in a vehicle they had hijacked at a robot and crashed nearby with police in pursuit.
The incident occurred at a cell phone company in Carlswald, Midrand in November 2017. The accused Hlakanipani Dlamini(20), Prosper Tjelele(31), Fanlen Nkomo(43), Given Ncube(31) and Percy Linda(39) are said to have plotted the robbery after getting wind of delivery of a stock of new cell phones.
“Once inside the premises, they assaulted the company employees and took from them R1 000 in cash and a wallet containing R150 and bank cards from one of them. This occurred as they seemingly were working their way towards the safe containing the phones.
The police pounced on them, resulting in a shoot-out and injury to one of the officers who was taken to a hospital for treatment. Dlamini and Tjelele were each sentenced to 15 years for robbery aggravating, another 15 years each for motor vehicle hijacking, eight years each for possession of unlicensed firearms and three years each for possession of unlicensed ammunition.
Nkomo and Ncube were each sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for robbery aggravating, eight years each for possession of unlicensed firearms and three years each for possession of unlicensed ammunition. Linda was sentenced to 15 years for robbery aggravating.
The sentences were ordered to run concurrently for 15 years for each of them.
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