Standerton Regional Court hands down jail sentences
Wiseman Thulani Mbatha (44) was sentenced by the Standerton Regional Court on June 21 for business robbery and the same court sentenced Magondwane Alfred Motha (46) the same day for tampering with essential infrastructure.
The provincial commissioner of SAPS in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela, welcomed separate sentences imposed upon two perpetrators who targeted businesses in Standerton.
Wiseman Thulani Mbatha (44) was sentenced in the Standerton Regional Court on June 21 for business robbery, and the same court sentenced Magondwane Alfred Motha (46) on the same day for tampering with essential infrastructure.
According to a statement from the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison, the court heard how two armed suspects robbed a retail chain store on February 15, 2020.
They stole mobile phones and an undisclosed amount of cash before they fled the scene, using a white Toyota Etios as a getaway car.
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The police in Standerton were informed, and as the officers spotted the vehicle, resulted in a chase. They brought the vehicle with two occupants to a halt in Leslie, where the officers arrested two suspects.
During their capture, the officers found cellphones inside the car that were later positively identified by the owners as properties belonging to the robbed retail shop.
Mbatha was one of the two men arrested. The court acquitted the 42-year-old man arrested with Mbatha.
The court sentenced Mbatha to 15 years of imprisonment for the business robbery and declared him unfit to possess a firearm.
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The sentencing of Motha came after the court heard how security officers caught him on June 21 last year.
He was busy destroying, cutting and removing copper and wires from the electric distribution board that supplies electricity to a soccer field and the surrounding buildings.
The guards, posted to safeguard the premises, alerted the SAPS.
Motha, charged with tampering with essential infrastructure, made his first court appearance in the Standerton Magistrate’s Court on June 23, last year.
He received a sentence of five years of imprisonment, with three years suspended for five years. He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm. Manamela appreciated the collaboration between the public and law enforcement agencies such as security companies and SAPS in fighting crime.
She also praised the investigation and prosecution teams and the judiciary that saw perpetrators receive a well-deserving sentence.
