Charges withdrawn against one OR Tambo heist suspect

The Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Friday withdrew charges of armed robbery against one of the seven accused in the OR Tambo International Airport 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 with five other accused on March 14.

The other accused included France Manaka‚ Simon Thlokwane‚ Prince Raphael Dube‚ Sibusiso Mnisi and businessman Thando Soshaqione, who were arrested at the weekend and 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.

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.

Numerous police officers man the airport, conducting duties including escorting valuable cargo between the vault and aircraft and vice versa. They also conduct general crime prevention activities at the airport.

Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane said after the robbery that police officers were not escaping scrutiny, as the net was closing in on the robbers who got away from the national key point.

“As the South African Police Service we would like to reiterate our stance that if we find that any of our members had a role to play, we will take decisive action. Our investigations continue and further court appearances and arrests are likely to be made,” he said.

“The SA Police Service would like to reassure all South Africans that we are committed to security our ports of entry and preventing and combating serious crimes of this nature.”