An integrated approach encompassing the SAPS, SANDF and Tracker yielded positive results when four stolen vehicles were recovered within a period of two days, around the Tonga policing area.
On Wednesday, 16 May 2018 at about 18:30, members attached to SAPS Tonga were performing routine crime prevention duties when they spotted a suspicious vehicle with two occupants at Mzinti. They stopped the vehicle and searched it while contacting Tracker. It was soon established that the vehicle had been reported stolen at Wierdabrug, near Centurion in Gauteng Province.
A preliminary police probe uncovered that the driver was hired to drive the vehicle from Nelspruit to Tonga and he was to leave it in one of the filling stations around Tonga, where another driver was to take it to Mozambique, however his luck ran out in just less than two km before reaching his destination. The two suspects, Sam Maswanganyi aged 45 and Maxwell Nsingwane aged 25 were then arrested for being in possession of a suspected stolen vehicle.
Maswanganyi and Nsingwane appeared before the Nkomazi Magistrate’s Court yesterday, 17 May 2018, where they were remanded in custody until their next appearance on Monday, 21 May 2018.
Meanwhile on Thursday, 17 May 2018 at about 21:00, the same members received information about four vehicles that were driving along the railway line in Ngwenyeni. The members called for back-up from the neighboring police station, Mbuzini, the SANDF and Tracker.
They drove to the point where the vehicles were most likely to make an exit. When the suspects noticed the collective, they made a U-turn and attempted to flee. The forces gave chase and in the process the suspects stopped the vehicles, jumped out and disappeared into the wilderness on foot. Three of the four Toyota double cabs were recovered with the fourth one managing to speed away. Two of the vehicles have Cape Town registration numbers with a Stellenbosch and Woodstock CAS numbers whilst the third had a Mpumalanga registration number with a Klerksdorp CAS number.
The Provincial Commissioner, of Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma commended the joint forces’ collaboration for the good success. “It is actions like these that will ensure we deal a bitter blow to cross-border crime thereby stamping the authority of the state,” said General Zuma.
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