Security was hastily beefed up and a packed courtroom gallery was cleared when a former Azanian People’s Liberation Army soldier appeared before the East London magistrate’s court on Monday.
The courtroom was cleared of public members when Lindile Mhlathi, 45, made his first court appearance after being arrested on Saturday on charges of attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.
A leg-cuffed Mhlathi was arrested at his farm in Mooiplaas on Saturday for his alleged involvement in a botched robbery on July 12 at an East London butchery. Apparently the conspirators believed the shopowner had R70m on the premises, police said.
In court on Monday, Mhlati was escorted by a group of five heavily armed tactical response team (TRT) police officers, with some wearing balaclavas to conceal their identity, during his brief appearance.
After some negotiations with the state and defence, magistrate Rochelle Sam allowed journalists into the courtroom.
Mhlathi, who is said to have been the mastermind behind the planned robbery, posed a lonely figure in the dock as Sam postponed the case to Wednesday.
He joins five co-accused who were arrested in July, some just moments before they allegedly tried to commit the robbery.
Hawks provincial spokesperson Captain Anelisa Feni on Monday said Mhlathi was nabbed after a joint operation by the Hawks serious organised crime unit, the SAPS crime intelligence unit, TRT and the dog unit. Secret plans for the armed robbery were allegedly intercepted by the police, resulting in some of the alleged suspects apprehended just moments before the robbery.
Mhlathi is the sixth person to be arrested. The planning of the robbery was apparently caught on video by police informers.
On Wednesday, security is again expected to be tight when Mhlathi joins the rest of his co-accused – Warren Isaacs, 30, Sonwabile Mafanya, 43, and Patson Ncube-Ngcobo, 40 – who were arrested on July 12 2018 in front of the butchery.
Fourteen days later, on July 26 Shirley Gunuza, 55, and Alpercino Shearer, 34, were also arrested for alleged conspiracy to rob the butchery.
Police said a number of other suspects, some with military training, managed to evade arrest on the day and were still at large.
A month after their arrest, three vehicles, a red VW Golf 7R, a gold Ford Fiesta and a white Ford Ranger were confiscated by police who believed the cars were to be used for robbery.
According to Feni, the Golf was hijacked in Gauteng in April 2018, the Fiesta was stolen in Gauteng in October 2017, while the Ford Ranger was allegedly stolen in Gauteng in January 2018.
Mafanya and Ncube-Ngcobo abandoned their bail application, while Gunuza, Isaacs and Shearer were later denied bail by magistrate Joel Cesar late in 2018. They appealed to the Grahamstown High Court.
On Friday, Judge Thembekile Malusi ordered the trio’s bail application be redone by a different magistrate, saying there were procedural irregularities.
He found: “Despite the seriousness of the matter as it involves the liberty of the appellants, it is apt to characterise the proceedings as a comedy of errors.”..