LIMPOPO – A 29-year-old taxi driver and his 31-year-old girlfriend from Jerusalem in the Hologotlou policing precinct outside Groblesdal, were arrested for faking a kidnapping incident.
Police spokesperson Lt Col Moatshe Ngoepe says on Monday, 26 June, the taxi driver went to his girlfriend’s home and told her to inform his boss (the taxi owner) that he had been kidnapped by unknown men driving three cars without registration numbers.
“The girlfriend did so and later opened a kidnaping case at the Hlogotlou police station on the same day,” he says.
The Police Detectives began initial investigations immediately and the taxi driver was found hiding inside his girlfriend’s house and they were both arrested.
The motive behind this false case is still not clear however, preliminary investigations by police revealed that the taxi driver failed to submit money he collected for some days, to the taxi owner.
“The suspects will appear before the Nebo Magistrate’s Court on Friday, 30 June, for bail application and for further police investigations to continue.”
Ngoepe says SAPS has condemned the case in the strongest terms as it was a waste of police resources on which genuine reported incidents have suffered a heavy blow on the response time during that period.
“We are going to leave no stone unturned on this matter until justice prevails on both the arrested suspects and the community are warned to refrain from irresponsible acts such as this,” Ngoepe concluded.
