Times Of Swaziland: COPS HITCH-HIKE TO ‘ROBBERY’

COPS HITCH-HIKE TO ‘ROBBERY’
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BY MFANUKHONA NKAMBULE on 03/01/2016 05:38:00


MANKAYANE – Responding to a robbery case on Christmas Eve, Mahlagatsha police
armed themselves with service firearms and rushed to the roadside to hitch rides
to the crime scene.
The two police officers did not have a car on that fateful day.
As a result, a resident who saw them by the road, thumbing lifts, volunteered to
transport them to the crime scene.
It is another story that when they got there, they discovered that it was
actually not a robbery case but a misunderstanding between passengers and
conductors of Phakama Bus Service, over the disappearance of E2 500 from the
moneybag.
The bus conductors alleged that either a passenger, whose state of sobriety was
questionable or one of his relatives had stolen the money.
This allegation was refuted by the suspects, who were still there when the
police arrived in their Good Samaritan’s card.
One of the suspects even produced a payslip to show the police that he earned a
monthly salary of E29 000 plus a Christmas bonus of E16 000.
He wondered how they could have stolen money from poorly paid public transport
workers.
The police had responded to the scene after the driver of Phakama, which
services the Manzini-Bhahwini route, had called them on his mobile phone, to
rush to Mtungulube, a bus station in Ngcoseni, about eight kilometres from the
Sibovu Police Post in Mahlangatsha, to arrest the robbery suspects.
The bus departs from Manzini at 12 noon.
After receiving the call from one of the bus workers, the police did not waste
time but ran to the roadside to seek any form of transport.
Luckily, the driver of the first car stopped and offered them the lift. However,
his car moved slowly until the police decided to alight and hitchhike again;
hoping to get a speeding car.
Derrick Dlamini, a constituency councillor (Bucopho) of Mambatfweni under
Mahlangatsha Inkhundla, came to their rescue as he transported them to the
alleged crime scene.
On arrival, the police discovered that the bus conductors were involved in an
altercation with one passenger whose state of sobriety was questionable.