A man arrested following an armed robbery that resulted in a car crashing into a Zolani house has told the court he himself was a robbery victim.
A man arrested following an armed robbery that resulted in a car crashing into a Zolani house has told the court he himself was a robbery victim.
The man was arrested with two others after they allegedly robbed a shop owner and his co-worker on their way to deposit money at a bank on 6 May.
The arrests followed a dramatic, high-speed chase.
All three men had initially abandoned their formal bail application, but one man, 38, has since opted to apply for bail.
He said he intended to plead not guilty to charges of armed robbery with aggravating circumstances; attempted murder; and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
He also said that when he was arrested he had been seeking shelter in the area after being robbed himself.
His attorney Mzuphela Yeko told the court that his defence in the trial would be in the form of an alibi, which his girlfriend would support.
During his bail application the man told the court that on the day in question he had been robbed by three young men at the old graveyard near Thatha location.
From the witness stand, he explained that he had been on his way back from walking somewhere with his girlfriend, when he was attacked by three men.
They took his neck chain, he said, and had stabbed him. He had managed to run to a house in the area and sought shelter. The people living there gave him a blanket.
He told the court that he'd been at the home in Nduna Street, Thatha, for just under half an hour when two police officers arrived.
One of them had asked him his name and what he was doing in the house. They asked him to come with them to the scene of the armed robbery.
When he arrived, he said, he'd seen a crowd gathered, a number of police officers and his two co-accused.
He said the police officers had put him in the silver Golf 5 allegedly used in the armed robbery while they went to look for handcuffs. He said the police later told him that there had been an armed robbery.
He expressed surprise that when told he them he had just been robbed, they didn't ask where he had been before he was robbed.
His claim that he didn't know his co-accused was disputed by the investigating officer. The man admitted that one of the other suspects, also 38, was familiar to him because they had once met in Joza and exchanged phone numbers; however, he said he didn't know the 59-year-old.
When state prosecutor Lungile Msutu called investigating officer John Manzana to testify, however, this was contradicted.
Manzana said when he arrived at the scene, all the three men had been locked in the back of a police van. Manzana told the court that the men knew each other because they had each other's numbers on their cellphones.
He said the man applying for bail had even sent a message to another person on the day of the incident, saying they were being chased by the police.
Manzana told the court that the bail applicant, together with the third accused, had approached the shop employee when he was on his way to the bank to deposit money.
The bail applicant allegedly pointed the firearm at the complainant, while accused number three snatched the money bag. Both ran to the vehicle, driven by the 59-year-old suspect.
Manzana said the money bag contained R71 000.
Msutu opposed the bail application. Magistrate Ronny Lesele postponed the case to Friday for bail judgment.
