The guards were driving from Mpongo Private Game Reserve after collecting money there when a vehicle reportedly overtook them and its occupants fired shots at them, forcing them to the side of the road.
Cambridge police spokesman Captain Mluleki Mbi said: “It is ...alleged that they were disarmed and handcuffed by a group of about 10 armed men, who took them to a forest nearby where they took the money from the cash van before fleeing in their car with an undisclosed amount of money.”
Mbi said the guards walked to the road where they stopped a passing police vehicle. “Police recovered two boxes of tainted money. The hijacked and the getaway vehicles were also recovered on the N6.”
Mpongo Private Game Reserve manager Rodney Gerhardt said no money had been lost by the reserve in the heist. “The heist took place at approximately 6.25pm on St Luke’s Road close to the N6...the vehicle was shot at by the assailants with automatic weapons. An unknown amount of cash was taken.”
Mbi said no one was injured and there had been no arrests.
It was the third such crime in the province in recent weeks. Last month two cash-in-transit heists were reported, one at Libode in which two guards where shot and injured but no money taken, and the other a day later near Tsitsa bridge in Qumbu.
Anyone with information on the N6 incident is asked to contact investigating officer Captain Johan Koedyk on 0827797157 or 08600-10111. — bonganif@dispatch.co.za