Three policemen arrested for stealing money at Mpumalanga crime scene

Three police officers were arrested for allegedly stealing money from the scene of a cash-in-transit heist last Thursday, Lowvelder reports.

A G4S armoured vehicle was heading towards Bushbuckridge from Thulamahashe when it was ambushed by a group of armed men travelling in two bakkies.

READ MORE: Reports of cash-in-transit heist at Jabulani Mall

According to provincial police spokesman Brigadier Leonard Hlathi, the attackers shot at the vehicle and forced it to stop.

The guards were disarmed and forced out of the vehicle.

The suspects then blasted the safe open and fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Hlathi said SAPS officers were alleged to have taken some of the money left behind on the scene.

He said police were alerted of the heist and the three accused police members, driving with five colleagues in a police Volkswagen Crafter, were the first ones to arrive at the scene.

“When other SAPS members arrived, they were informed by community members that they had seen some police officers, who were travelling in the Crafter which had left a few minutes earlier, taking money that was scattered around.”

Constable Thembiso Mathebula, 52, WO Citizen Mabuso, 31, and a reserve Const Kaizen Mdluli, 38, were arrested the same day. They were called while travelling at Dwarsloop and ordered to stop.

When their colleagues arrived, they searched them and they were allegedly found in possession of notes suspected to have been taken on the scene.

They appeared in the Mhlala Magistrates’ Court on Friday on charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice. All three received R2 000 bail each.