Two men have been sentenced to 10 and 15 years respectively for truck hijacking.
Cyprian Lebogang Mabuza and Clement Leo Chiloane are behind bars after making their final appearance at Witbank Magistrate Court recently.
The story starts when a woman from Hlanikahle received a call from her husband who was at Burgersfort at that time. The phone call was made on August 16, 2016. The man told his wife that Mabuza (25) would be coming the following day (Wednesday) to hire a truck as he wanted to load building material. Mabuza alleged that he was building a school in Klarinet.
Indeed on Wednesday morning Mabuza fetched the Toyota Dyna 3 ton and the woman asked Mabuza to drive the vehicle as she is not used to driving on a busy road like in Klipfontein.
The woman asked the neighbour’s son to accompany them.
Mabuza said he wanted to go to Ferrobank first to pay for concrete. When he came back he asked the woman if she knows of anyone that can install a ceiling.
The woman replied and said Mabuza can employ her neighbour’s son as he is currently looking for work.
According to Mabuza the job needed more than one person to do it, therefore he told the boy to invite his friends. They went back to Hlanikahle to fetch four boys and headed to Kwa-Guqa to fetch Mabuza’s friend Chiloane (25). They all drove to Pap & Vleis and Mabuza called someone else to come fetch the five boys as he said they were running out of time.
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In the vehicle was Mabuza, Chiloane and the woman. The three of them drove towards Klipfontein.
They stopped at a shop selling steel and Mabuza went to the gate where he spoke to the security guard briefly. Mabuza came to the truck and said it is already late. Late for what exactly, nobody knows.
They continued their journey and drove to the Old Ogies road, passed a colliery and drove on a gravel road to Blackhill.
Mabuza started being aggressive towards the woman, he stated that he needed the truck. He stopped the vehicle and the woman was pushed into the bush. Her hands and feet were tied with masking tape and shoe laces. R150 was taken from her and the two men then drove off leaving her in the bushes.
The woman managed to bite the tape and untied herself; she called her husband as luckily she still had her cell phone and her husband then called Tracker.
The woman was fetched by her niece and she was taken home. The truck was found at Diamond Hill after being stopped by Tracker. Mabuza and Chilaone were arrested. Ever since the day of the arrest, the pair never got bail. W/O Tumi Morajane was the mastermind behind this breakthrough. In investigating this case the officer took a total of 17 statements.
Mabuza and Chiloane were found guilty of truck hijacking. Mabuza was sentenced to 15 years and Chiloane will be locked up for 10 years.
“Be aware when taking such phone calls especially from strangers. We are sensitising community members who own transport services to not easily agree with what the client wants without doing a background check. Get information on the client such as the place of residence or their ID. Do not put yourself or your loved ones in danger,” warned Lt Col Solly Thobejane.
Witbank Cluster Commander, Major General Wilson Kekana thanked W/O Morajane on how good the investigation was executed. “A job well done,” appreciated Major General Kekana.
