Attempted hijacking of police boss: seven in court
SEVEN men appeared in the King William’s Town Magistrate’s Court this week in connection with the attempted hijacking of provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Celiwe Binta last year.
A heavily armed group of men attempted to hijack Binta’s vehicle in April while she was a passenger in it.
Sources at the King William’s Town court said the men, six of whom were arrested in Mdantsane and one in Butterworth, had appeared in court on more than four occasions.
“Their case is continually delayed by them [the accused] changing lawyers every now and then,” said a court official.
Provincial police spokeswoman Colonel Sibongile Soci said police had kept the arrests under wraps because “too many details have been published concerning the incident”.
Soci said Binta was of the view that details of the attempted hijacking that had been reported in the media, which included the make and colour of her vehicle, had the potential of endangering her life.
Soci said the seven accused in court, whose ages ranged from 26 to 35, were Bongani Vantyu, Mzoxolo Gaxa, Siyabonga Tshayela, Siviwe Notshati, Anele Nquma, Xolisa Mazizi and Zimasa Diniso.
The case was postponed to August 29 after two lawyers representing the accused did not arrive in court.
Binta was in her BMW X3 with her driver, Mpho Sidhavi, and an unnamed woman passenger when gunmen, one armed with an R5 rifle, tried to hijack the vehicle at an intersection near Lingelitsha township in Berlin.
The men forced Sidhavi to stop, and a shot was fired which went through the driver’s and the passenger’s windows, just missing Sidhavi, who suffered cuts from shards of glass. Sidhavi managed to maintain control of the vehicle, despite one of its tyres also being damaged in the attack, and drove to the Berlin police station.
According to court papers, the armed men then went to a nearby house where they allegedly robbed a pastor of his cellphones, and took his car keys. They later allegedly robbed a Berlin butchery of R6 000.