Pretoria – The Booysens Regional Court has sentenced 39-year-old Zimbabwean national Mune Gumbo to 10 years imprisonment for attempted murder and possession of a hijacked motor vehicle.
“The accused was a passenger in a gold Toyota Fortuner parked at Hay Street, in the Booysens policing area, on June 2, 2020 at 9pm. Joburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officers saw a suspicious vehicle with two occupants inside; made a u-turn and the vehicle drove off at high speed,” said SAPS Joburg central spokesperson Captain Xoli Mbele.
“A chase ensued and they were cornered at the corner of Getrude and Gardener Street. The driver came out and the passenger shot at the police and they retaliated.”
Mbele said the driver ran away on foot and the passenger jumped into the driver’s seat, and sped off.
Another chase ensued until Gumbo lost control of the vehicle crashed into the fence of the school.
“Police apprehended him and he sustained gunshot wound in his upper leg. A police officer and the suspect were taken to hospital for treatment. The vehicle was compared and it came out positive that it was hijacked at Boksburg during test driving on the 14th of March 2020 at 11am,” said Mbele.
An unlicensed firearm and live ammunition were also recovered.
“The good conviction is a result of a quality investigation done by Sergeant Thabiso Lehong of Johannesburg Central trio detectives. We hope this sentence will scare away would be offenders from committing the same crime,” said Mbele.
Last year, a man who kidnapped and hijacked a 23-year-old woman was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment, in the Johannesburg Magistrate Court.
Police said Tebogo Kgolokholo, 29, had also been declared unfit to possess a firearm by the court, after he and two others hijacked the woman's VW Polo, in Riverlea.
At the time, Mbele said the woman had been visiting her boyfriend, and was standing outside the vehicle when she was hijacked and kidnapped.
“A 23-year-old female was in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, speaking to her boyfriend – who was standing outside of the vehicle – when they were confronted by three suspects and one of them pointed a firearm at them.
“They forced the boyfriend to get inside the car, and the woman was instructed to sit in the back seat.
IOL