Three cash-in-transit robbers have been sentenced in the East London Regional Court to lengthy prison terms for a 2016 robbery at Capitec Bank in East London, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) said on Saturday.
Zukile Vimbela, 41, Mfana Selby Gomba, 33, and Bulelani Luningo, 37 were sentenced on Friday, Hawks spokesperson Captain Anelisa Ngcakani said.
On September 17, 2016 at about 11 am, security guards from G4S security company were offloading cash from their vehicle into the bank when about six armed men confronted them with firearms and disarmed them. The men then stormed into Capitec Bank, forced staff and security guards into the bank vault, locked them inside the vault, and fled with about R1.6 million.
The Hawks serious organised crime investigation unit started its investigation and, with the assistance of an informer, managed to track down the black BMW used by the robbers as a getaway vehicle. Members of the unit traced it two days after the robbery to Kei Bridge as Vimbela and other people were driving to East London. The Hawks positively linked Vimbela to the robbery and arrested him on the same day, Ngcakani said.
Gomba and Luningo were arrested by South African Police Service (SAPS) officers in Gugulethu in Cape Town two days after the heist
The East London Regional court sentenced Vimbela to 10 years, Gomba to 15 years for armed robbery, 30 for possession of two unlicensed firearms, and five years for possession of ammunition.
Luningo received 20 years for armed robbery, 30 years for possession of two unlicensed firearms, and five-years for possession of ammunition.
The sentences of Gomba and Luningo would run concurrently.
-African News- Agency
