Bongani Hlahla (36) and Bukhosi Mhlanga (39) were sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for robbery and two years for being illegal immigrants on February 20 at the Benoni Regional Court.
Their accomplices Nozwelo Valentine Sibanda (36) and Kabelo Ndaba (38) were sentenced two years for being in the country illegally.
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Actonville SAPS spokesperson Sgt Godin Nyathi said the four men robbed a 17-year-old boy of his cellphone and they assaulted him when he refused to give it to them in Wattville on August 22, 2019.
“After they took his cellphone, the boy ran home to his father who is an EMPD officer and told him what happened,” said Nyathi.
“The father then went looking for the suspects and he found them nearby.”
Nyathi said the father called for backup and the robbers were arrested.
They were found in possession of seven cellphones, three tiles cut into a size of a cellphone.
Nyathi said when the suspects rob people, they ask them to put their cellphones on a brown envelop then they swap the phone with the tile.
All four men are serving their sentences at the Modderbee Prison.
The station commander Lt Col Elsie Mashinini applauded Dect/Const Phuti Mashabela for a job well done with the investigation.
