Cape Town - After a police operation prevented a cash-in-transit heist in which eight suspects were killed in a shoot-out, five surviving accused have been released from custody.
Police are investigating a potential connection between them and a series of robberies that occurred last month.
This was heard on Thursday as three of them appeared in Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court.
Tebogo Maluke, Cassiem Feni, Avuyile Mjongwana, Simphiwe Mzawya and Sihle Mabongo were arrested on Monday after eight of their alleged accomplices were killed in a shoot-out in Town Two, Khayelitsha.
They were charged with murder and possession of firearms and ammunition.
Mzawya and Mabongo were absent as they were still in hospital due to injuries sustained during the incident.
During the proceedings, lawyer Josua Greeff argued his client, Feni, had been behind bars for more than 48 hours.
“I would like the court to note that the date of arrest was August 5. The time he was charged was before 4pm in the afternoon. He had to appear on Wednesday and the legitimacy of being in custody fell away at 4pm on Wednesday,” Greeff said.
“Our contention is the State was aware, but they wanted to utilise the full 48 hours. Accused two is currently appearing unlawfully before the court. I submit that the case be removed from the roll on accused two. The State can then re-summons him back.”
Magistrate Brendale Abrahams confirmed the accused had appeared unlawfully in court in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act.
“The case has been removed from the court roll.”
Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile said the law was clear on the maximum time of detention of 48 hours.
“We respect what the magistrate said. Where we stand as police is that if it falls within 48 hours then the suspect must be in court, but if it falls outside court hours then the next day there is the court date appearance.
“It’s not all lost. This was just one matter. We have other matters that we are investigating of heists that happened in Kuils River and Paarl in July.
“We are conducting investigations and if some of them are linked to those, we will prevent them from disappearing.
“The matter has been removed from the court roll. But our investigation will continue,” said Patekile.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said the suspects were going to attack a business, or “whatever they were planning to attack”, and they were intercepted.
“That is the duty of police, to intercept crimes so that we bring the number down. But we also welcomed the seizure of those firearms ... those are very high calibre weapons,” said Mchunu.
One of the dead suspects is believed to have come from KwaZulu-Natal for the attack, which was planned to happen on Friday.
Maluke is from Soweto while others are from Khayelitsha, Gugulethu and Samora Machel.