Four people held at gunpoint while assailants plant major explosives

BURGERSFORT – Two cashiers and a petrol attendee from PPS Petroport were held at gunpoint in the early hours of Monday.

At around 01:53 two men, armed with nine-millimetre pistols stormed into the petrol station’s convenience shop and confronted cashiers, Mr Ronny Motau and Mr Aubey Mabuza and petrol attendant Mr Otto Maphana as well as a driver from Lebowa Panelbeaters.

The men planted explosives in the drop safe and detonated it, however, it was unsuccessful. The culprits then demanded the cashiers empty the tills. They got away with R2 500.

They were caught on CCTV cameras wearing caps and driving a silver vehicle. This is the third attempt at this depot, but each has been unsuccessful. Explosive technicians told the supervisor of the station, Mr Kevin Volskenk, that if the explosives had detonated correctly, they could have destroyed the entire shop.

“The culprits fled in the silver vehicle leaving the remaining explosives behind. There were in total seven men, including the driver, involved in the robbery,” said Volskenk.