Cape Town - Convicted cash-in-transit robbers claim they were assisted by corrupt police officers, prosecutors, magistrates and even judges, said the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) researcher, Johan Burger.
He was speaking after Zwelinkosi Tsolo 40, a former SBV security guard, who murdered his colleague in a cash-in-transit robbery, was jailed for life.
Burger said despite recent high-profile arrests, cash-in-transit robbery remained a serious threat in South Africa.
“Among those arrested were members of the SAPS, metro police and private security companies,” he said.
Corrupt officials were involved in these violent crimes, and research showed that the problem extended beyond the police, Burger pointed out.
Hawks spokesperson Philani Nkwalase said Tsolo was sentenced on Friday. “He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his SBV co-guard, and an additional 10 years for each of the three counts of attempted murder of two members of the public, and another security guard injured during the heist.
“He was further slapped with 15 years for armed robbery,” Nkwalase said, adding that Tsolo and his accomplices committed the crime in April 2009 at Nyanga Junction in Duinefontein Road, Manenberg.
SBV crew members were on their way to load an ATM when three suspects accosted the pair who were carrying cash, and opened fire at them, killing one, injuring another guard as well as two members of public.”
“They then fled the scene in two getaway vehicles taking the cash and service firearms with them,” he said.
Both vehicles were later found abandoned at Kiki hostels in Gugulethu and Wynberg. The vehicles were reported as hijacked and stolen at Lotus squatter settlement in Gugulethu and Wynberg, respectively.
The Hawks’s national bureau for illegal firearms control and priority violent crime unit arrested and charged Tsolo along with five others on July 20, 2009. He was granted R10000 bail on February 18, 2013.
Five others were discharged for inconclusive evidence. And Tsolo was acquitted on a charge of theft of a motor vehicle.
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