No bail for ‘Range Rover’ suspects
Six men believed to be the “Range Rover” gang were denied bail on Thursday and will spend the festive season in jail.
The six, all from KwaZuluNatal, are accused of a spate of armed robberies in three provinces while driving in a hijacked white Range Rover.
The six – Sakhile Ntsele, Sibusiso Mthuli, Msizi Nxumalo, Xolani Msomi, Njabulo Ngcobo, and Zakhele Sibiya – were arrested in East London in October, and will spend Christmas in a prison there after bail court magistrate Joel Cesar turned down their bail application.
On Wednesday, a Mpumalanga police investigator was about to take the witness stand and testify about a number of robberies in that province when defence attorney Bongani Macingwane objected.
Macingwane told Cesar that the men were not in the dock for crimes committed in Mpumalanga and that his clients were yet to be charged for them and therefore the “court did not need to hear of such allegations”.
Cesar adjourned court for a while, telling the state and defence attorneys to sort it out between them.
A few minutes later, when the hearing resumed, the investigator did not take the stand.
The men were arrested on the evening of October 26, less than an hour after a Vincent Heights home was stormed and the family robbed at gunpoint.
Those attackers escaped with jewellery, a firearm, cellphones and a large amount of cash in both local and foreign currencies.
All of these items were recovered in three bedrooms the six trialists had hired at a Selborne guest lodge – where they were arrested – plus five semiautomatic firearms, according to the state.
The gang is said to have also been involved in an armed robbery spree in Durban, Newlands East and Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal, and in Ermelo and Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, “among others”, according to police.
The six had initially abandoned their bail application in early November after detectives from both KZN and Mpumalanga descended on the East London magistrate’s court in the wake of their arrest.
The white Range Rover was found to have been hijacked from a Durban doctor who was attacked at his surgery on October 7 and robbed of money, cellphones, a CCTV recorder and laptops.
Cesar ruled that it would not be in the interest of justice to release the men on bail.
“There is a likelihood that they will pose danger to the safety of the public, intimidate witnesses, or continue committing similar crimes if released on bail,” he said.
“Keeping them in custody is the best possible option.”
He postponed the case to January 22.