A 47-year-old suspect appeared in court on Monday in connection with a daring armed robbery in Thohoyandou in February 2020. The robbery, which occurred in broad daylight, left a security guard dead. One of the robbers also died, and his body was later found nearly 100 kilometres away.
The spokesperson for the Hawks in Limpopo, W/O Lethunya Mmuroa, said the suspect, Mashudu Netshifhefhe, had been arrested during an integrated multi-disciplinary operation, "Retrieval." The operation was conducted by the Musina-based Serious Organised Crime Investigation (SOCI) unit, in collaboration with the Thohoyandou-based Tactical Response Team (TRT), the Thohoyandou SAPS Task Team, and the Thohoyandou K9 unit.
According to Mmuroa, the charges stem from an incident in 2020 when two G4S Cash Solutions security guards collected money from a store in Thohoyandou. "While walking on the pavement back to the G4S armoured vehicle, one of the guards was approached by a group of armed suspects. He was shot and robbed of a carrier bag containing a large sum of money," said Mmuroa. The guard's colleague, who witnessed the attack, fired shots at the suspects, injuring one of them. The robbers then fled the scene.
The security guard, Elias Rapakgali (38) from Seshego, was rushed to Tshilidzini Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. Later that day, the body of a man believed to be one of the suspects was found with a bullet wound at the Makhado Information Centre in Louis Trichardt, Mmuroa added.
When Netshifhefhe appeared before Magistrate Carol Ramahuma on Monday, he avoided looking at the gallery or at media representatives taking photographs.
The state prosecutor requested that the case be postponed to 11 February for profiling, stating that bail could not be considered until two of Netshifhefhe's alleged accomplices were apprehended.
Netshifhefhe's lawyer, Adv Sithovha, argued that a date for the bail application should also be set.
Magistrate Ramahuma postponed the case to 11 February.