More charges on top of 80-year sentence

THE state yesterday brought a prisoner already serving an 80-year jail term back to court to face additional charges.

Cape Town-born Simthembile Mtanga, 40, was sentenced in December in the East London Regional Court to 80 years’ imprisonment for five counts of robbery out of British American Tobacco (BAT) vans.

The hijacks occurred in Quigney, Vergenoeg, Fynbos and Mdantsane between August and October 2014. Cigarettes worth R641 000 were stolen.

During the hijacks, a BAT van driver would be ambushed by a group of men and thrown in the back of the van. One of the gang would guard him while the vehicle was being driven to a secluded spot where a getaway vehicle waited.

The boxes of cigarettes would be loaded into the getaway vehicle. The robbers then drove away in the getaway car, leaving the BAT driver locked in the back of his truck.

Mtanga was identified from CCTV footage inserted into BAT trucks.

Yesterday, state prosecutor Luntu Magaxa requisitioned Mtanga from the West Bank Maximum Prison, where he is serving his term.

He told Regional Court 4 presiding magistrate Sadia Jacobs that Mtanga would stand trial on April 4, 5 and 6 next year for a September 2 2014 robbery on a BAT van at the Amalinda One Stop.

About 444 cartons of cigarettes valued at R126 540 and the driver’s cellphone were taken in the robbery.

Mtanga was told by the court he would be eligible for parole after 30 years of direct imprisonment.

He appealed the sentences March, without success.

He said in his appeal that the court had erred in admitting the evidence from facial identification specialist Norman Henry Kesselman, who did not produce his qualifications before the court.

Mtanga said furthermore three state witnesses – Zan Williams, Luthando Nkosinathi and Pule Mdebeza, who testified against him during his trial – did not recognise him as the person who had hijacked the BAT vehicles.

He said further that the court had failed to take into consideration the fact that no firearm had been used during the robberies.

Magistrate Ignatius Kitching dismissed his application, saying no other court could reach a different conclusion. — in