Bail denied for armed robbery suspects
After a lengthy and somewhat unusual bail application, two men accused of being involved in two armed robberies, one classified as a farm attack, had their applications dismissed and bail refused.
Sydney Kgosi Malapane (36) and Trymore Munhuwumwe (34) appeared in court on Tuesday, January 18. They face two charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, as well as kidnapping, assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm, housebreaking with the intent to steal, and theft.
The matter was remanded for Malapane to launch his bail application, whilst it was Munhuwumwe’s first appearance after he handed himself over to the police over the past weekend.
Malapane was arrested on January 7 when his house in Mountain View, Mhluzi, was raided by the Middelburg Detective’s Tracing Team.
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The duo’s legal representative, Mr Madubanje, said that Malapane has a pending case of possession of a firearm against him, for which he is currently out on bail, whilst Munhuwumwe has a previous conviction for theft in 2017, for which he received a suspended sentence.
Munhuwumwe is a Zimbabwean citizen. Both men claim to be married with children.
The investigating officer, Detective-Constable Jabulani Mndebele, took to the stand to testify about the investigation thus far and how the suspects were linked.
He said that an armed robbery at R&F Tissue Mills, in the Industrial Area, took place on December 23.
Robbers overpowered a security guard, tied him up and held him hostage whilst hooking two lowbed trailers with cargo onto their own trucks. The trailers were loaded with jumbo rail tissues headed to Zambia valued at R1.2 million.
One trailer was not hooked properly and the load was lost.
A second armed robbery, that took place at Zonnebloem Boerdery on the evening of December 26 until the early hours of the next day, saw more or less the same modus operandi.
A group of five armed men overpowered a security guard. A struggle for his cellphone ensued, and the guard was stabbed in the back of the head with a knife in the process.
The robbers overpowered another security guard, two women that were with them, as well as a gardener. They stole valuable items to the value of R4 million, including two Toyota bakkies, a Hilux and a Land Cruiser, as well as hauling away two trailers, a lowbed and side tipper, with their own trucks.
A breakthrough was made on January 1, when the bakkies were discovered on a premises in Kromdraai near eMalahleni. It was established that the owner of the said property also owns properties in Middelburg, Zuid Street, as well as two in Mhluzi.
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More stolen goods were found on the Middelburg property and one Mhluzi property.
Police then started looking for the person in control of the properties, Malapane, whose father is the owner thereof. After several attempts to get Malapane to come in for questioning, he had to be arrested by a tracing team.
Other than the properties, Malapane was also positively identified by two witnesses during an identity parade.
Munhuwumwe was indicated by witness statements as well as by his own admission, Det. Const. Mndebele testified. He said that his passport, validity of his residency permit, as well as his fixed address, have not been verified and called his inclusion in the bail application an ‘ambush’.
“For me to try and answer questions about him with nothing verified is like sending me to war without ammunition,” Det. Const. Mndebele said.
Malapane’s legal representative attempted to hand in a copy of a bank statement, claiming that his client has an alibi for December 26.
The document, which did not contain transaction times or an account number, was rejected by the court. Magistrate Christa Pool found that the details given by the accused, mostly via their affidavits, were vague with no physical proof of employment or residence handed in.
She also noted the investigating officer’s mention of conflicting versions given by the accused during their interviews with police in comparison with what they said in their affidavits.
She echoed Mr Madubanje, saying that Munhuwumwe ‘was brave to hand himself over to police’ and ‘it is not brave to do so when you know the whole Middelburg detective unit is tracing you’.
She refused bail and remanded the matter to February for further investigations.
