File
Eastern Cape police are mourning the loss of a member of the Tactical Response Team who was killed in a shootout with cash-in-transit robbers in the Tsolo area on Monday.
Provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana, identified him as 41-year-old, Sergeant Mzoxolo Gxothani, who was stationed in East London but was on deployment duties in the OR Tambo District Municipality.
He said the TRT team was returning from Port St Johns when they came across the scene where a group of eight men had used explosives to retrieve cash from two G4 Security vehicles which were forcibly stopped near Dangwana Locality.
Kinana said group escaped in two vehicles, a white double cab Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux bakkie.
The chase ensued in the direction of Libode and one of the vehicles was later spotted at Mhlakulo where the shoot-out took place and Sergeant Gxothani was fatally wounded in the upper body.
Kinana said the suspects vanished in the Nqadu Forest with a large, but undisclosed amount of cash.
“Cases of murder and armed robbery are under investigation,” he said.
