Court hears OR Tambo airport heist accused rakes in R400k a month

Kempton Park Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday heard that two accused suspects in the multimillion-rand robbery at OR Tambo could afford the R30 000 bail, with one of the accused, Prince Dube, reportedly saying he earned R400 000 a month.

TimesLive is reporting that the accused Dube said in his affidavit that this monthly income was generated from his exhibition stalls business. Co-accused Thando Sonqishe’s lawyer also reportedly argued his client could afford the bail and was concerned about his transport business if he were to continue in prison.

The bail applications were, however, opposed by the prosecutor, who said the accused faced serious charges of armed robbery.

The matter has reportedly been postponed for further arguments to be heard on Tuesday afternoon.

Early this month, a gang of robbers made off with an undisclosed amount of cash – reported to be around R24 million – from Africa’s biggest and busiest airport. Some of the gang members were allegedly wearing police uniforms. No shots were fired. The money has not been recovered.

On Friday, the court withdrew charges of armed robbery against one of the seven accused in the heist case.

According to TimesLive, the court first withdrew charges against Mosiuoa Motani and Khulekani Sibanda‚ but later brought new charges against Motani.

The two were reportedly granted bail of R50 000 each when they appeared on March 14 with five other accused, who are facing charges of robbery with aggravated circumstances. They are all understood to be between 30 and 40, and were remanded to police custody for further investigations.

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