Pretoria – Provincial commissioner of police in Limpopo, Lieutenant-General Thembi Hadebe has welcomed individual hefty sentences handed down against three people convicted for a series of serious crimes committed during September and October 2017.
“Ndou Lukase Rembuluwani aged 29, Ndou Ben aged 29 and Khoza Ngobeni Small aged 28, were sentenced to a combined period of 384 years imprisonment by the Limpopo Division of the High Court in Polokwane after they were convicted on a total of 25 cases that were committed in Seshego and Westenburg policing areas in which residents were tormented by their reign of terror that lasted for two months,” said Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo.
He said the trio were members of a group of criminals who were calling themselves “Boko Haram”.
They terrorised community members in Limpopo by committing crimes that included murder, attempted murder, possession of unlicensed firearm and ammunition, house breaking with intention to rob, robbery with aggravating circumstances, malicious damage to property, theft and house robberies.
Mojapelo said the three were also convicted for contravening immigration laws for being in South Africa illegally.
“Some of their victims included the players of Magezi Football Club who were robbed of their cellphones, soccer kit, shoes and clothes at gunpoint during a house robbery that they committed in the early hours of Wednesday, 18 October 2017, in their club house,” said Mojapelo.
On October 9 2017, at about 2am, the accused armed with firearms robbed teachers at a residential house in Jansen Park under the Westenburg policing area.
During the incident, shots were fired but no injuries were sustained. Items including laptops, television sets and cellphones were robbed.
“A week later on Thursday 19 October 2017 at about 23h30, a group of four suspects entered the victims’ premises at one of the local plots and surrounded the house. They were all armed with firearms. The victim noticed the suspects on CCTV and alerted his wife and kids to hide and notified the police,” Mojapelo said.
“The victim fired a warning shot and the suspects also fired shots randomly at house. Apparently, one of the suspects was gunned down and the other three fled, leaving him behind.”
The reported cases were assigned to Detective Sergeant Tlou Johannes Chokoe of Westenburg detective unit who started investigations.
In the morning of 20 October 2017, a day after the shooting incident at the plot where one criminal was shot dead, the investigating officer received a tip-off from a hospital.
“According to information, the suspects sent their girlfriends to go to the hospital and check if their accomplice was brought in. The police immediately activated a snap operation consisting of detectives and public order policing. On arrival, they found the suspects’ girlfriends who led the police to Seshego where the suspects were hiding,” Mojapelo said.
The three suspects were arrested and police recovered some of the stolen property including firearms and ammunition. They were linked to more cases.
“The court ultimately sentenced the three accused to effective 128 years imprisonment each and also declared them unfit to possess a firearm,” Mojapelo said.
IOL