Mpumalanga police arrested four suspects between the ages 40 and 42 after they were found with 68 suspected stolen bank cards on the N4 Freeway in Belfast.
Provincial police spokesperson, Captain Magonseni Nkosi, said the suspects were arrested on Tuesday during an operation led by Crime Intelligence, Witbank Tactical Response Team, and the Middleburg Flying Squad.
“Information was received from a reliable source that there are bank cards that were kept in a house in Siyancoba section in Witbank.
“Observation was conducted and on Tuesday morning at about 6am, the suspects were spotted loading the suspected stolen cards in a vehicle and left the house,” said Nkosi.
Nkosi said the team followed the vehicle and after a long trace, the vehicle was cornered in Belfast on the N4 Freeway en route to Nelspruit direction.
“The vehicle was searched and 68 bank cards were found in the vehicle. The four occupants aged between 40 and 42 years could not produce the authority to possess such cards.”
Nkosi added that the suspects were arrested and are expected to appear before Belfast Magistrate's Court soon.
“Police can not rule out possibilities of adding other charges pending further investigation,” said Nkosi.
In a similar matter, a 27-year-old police constable, Minenhle Makhaye was arrested after he was found with 252 bank cards.
The cards were allegedly stolen during the looting of the Absa and African Bank branches at Bridge City Mall in KwaMashu during the 2021 July unrest.
Makhaye was arrested for the alleged theft of a bank card belonging to the mother of Zarah Ramsamy, 11, who was killed in a hijacking in early September.
It is alleged that the hijacked vehicle, was abandoned in Cato Manor, and Makhaye had been told to drive the vehicle to Malvern SAPS. Makhaye took the bank card during this trip and used it to purchase alcohol.
However police also found 272 cards in his room at his grandmother’s Seaview home.
Makhaye, in his affidavit, has said that he had mistakenly taken Ramsamy’s bank card and the bank cards recovered in his room didn’t belong to him.
He said they belonged to his late grandfather, who worked as a truck driver and for a courier company.
He was denied bail.
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