It remains to be seen whether the police’s big guns entering into the fray of the investigation into an alleged motorcycle theft syndicate will yield satisfactory results.
The initial complainant, Pieter Fourie, who had three motorcycles stolen in August, has yet to see the investigation into the thefts be taken seriously. Thusfar, the investigation has been marred by sloppy police work despite overwhelming evidence that a trans-national syndicate is committing the crimes. Now the cluster commander of the Soweto West Cluster, Major General Kekana, as well as Colonel Van Wyk have been called in to investigate the allegations Fourie, and other complainants are making against Roodepoort Police. At this stage Kekana is only gathering as much information as possible, he said. He also undertook to speak to all the complainants.
To date, the following facts have been established:
• The kingpin, whose name is known to the Record, is based in Mozambique.
• The syndicate’s South African leg is based in Randfontein. They steal motorcycles across the West Rand.
• Many of its members are heavily armed former Renamo soldiers.
• They usually strike on Sunday nights.
• They steal the motorcycles in 10 to 15 minutes.
• Two Roodepoort police officers have been keeping a log of the thefts for the past seven months, yet no task team has been formed to investigate the phenomenon.
• Policemen and customs officials on both sides of the border are allegedly involved.
• The syndicate identifies the motorcycles they want to steal by taking down the registration numbers of motorcycles at biker gatherings such as rallies, and then tracing them through their contacts within law enforcement to the owner’s address.
• They only steal new motorcycles and prefer to strike targets who own more than one motorcycle.
Read more here:
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Motorcycle thiefs on the prowl
Thieves take three motorcycles and trailer
