CIT guard arrested for allegedly colluding with robbers in R6.9m heist

An Eastern Cape cash-in-transit truck driver has been arrested for allegedly being part of a plot by 15 heavily armed men who attacked and robbed the cash van he was driving last Friday, before making off with more than R6 million in cash.

The Hawks announced that 43-year-old Simphiwe Twanya, a security guard at the SBV cash company, appeared in the Gqeberha Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday in connection with the cash-in-transit robbery.

He will remain in custody until 14 July 2021 when he will bring a bail application.

An insider close to the investigation said the gang made off with R6.9 million in cash.

The guard was arrested on 4 July, two days after the cash heist, following an intensive investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Unit of the Hawks, the police’s bomb disposal unit and members of the police’s Local Criminal Record Centre.

Twanya and two other security guards were in the process of loading cash into an ATM at Cleary Park Estate in Gelvandale in Gqeberha when they were besieged by a group of 15 armed robbers in four cars.

“The security guards were disarmed, and the suspects fled in their four getaway vehicles with four service firearms, including a rifle, as well as millions of rands. Only one guard sustained an injury to his head,” Hawks spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said.

Mgolodela said Twanya was the driver of the security vehicle on the day of the attack.

“The investigation revealed that he connived with the suspects,” she said.

Mgolodela said the search for the other robbers was continuing.