A former police constable will spend an effective 20 years behind bars after he was convicted of armed robbery.
Sandile Edward Mroqoza and five accomplices used a police vehicle during a cash heist in 2016.
He was sentenced on Thursday 6 April, after a protracted court battle. He was convicted of aggravated robbery by the Blue Downs Magistrates’ Court and sentenced last week.
Previously based at Nyanga Police Station, Mroqoza, who was off duty on the day of the incident, booked a police vehicle to commit the crime in Kraaifontein.
According to reports, the heist was carried out in May 2016 on Waarburgh Road at Joostenberg Vlakte in Kraaifontein. The group walked away with over R2,3 million.
Provincial Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said Mroqoza and his accomplices approached G4S members in a marked police van fitted with blue lights.
“The police vehicle forced the truck to stop. Two suspects wearing police uniforms got out of the front of the vehicle and four other suspects, wearing civilian clothing, alighted from the back.
The suspects threatened the driver of the armoured vehicle with firearms and forced him to open the back of the car. They reversed the police vehicle with its back to the G4S truck and then emptied the drop-safes,” explained Hani, adding that the driver and the crewman’s firearms were taken.
She stated that the crewman was slightly injured after being hit on the head with a firearm and that an amount of over R2.3 million was taken. “Through an intensive investigation, information was followed up on 4 May 2016 and a police officer stationed at Nyanga Police Station was arrested. A black bag containing cash was recovered at his house inside the fridge. Further investigation through automatic vehicle locator (AVL) established that Mroqoza used the police van which indicated that the vehicle was at the crime scene,” said Hani.
She said Mroqoza was further declared unfit to possess a firearm.
The Acting Provincial Head of the Western Cape, Brig Piet Bergh commended the team for the sentence. He said they are sending a message to their own who intend to commit the crime that they will leave no stone unturned.
Nyanga Community Policing Forum (CPF) hailed the conviction.
CPF secretary Dumisani Qwebe described Mroqoza’s sentence as a warning to other officers intending to commit a crime. He appealed to the government to “clean out all the rotten apples” from the police service across the country.
“The day Mroqoza committed the crime was off duty. He went to the station and booked the vehicle, pretending as if he was going to court. The station found out later that Mroqoza took the vehicle to commit a heist in Kraaifontein with five accomplices,” explained Qwebe. He stated that the CPF has no mercy for criminals, especially government officials. He applauded the detectives involved in the case for a good job.
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