In early October 2018, constables Gideon Mandindi, Molebatsi Modisenyane, Mohlomi Ramaphiri, and their captain, Seabelo Mogopodi, were arrested for allegedly stealing R25 000, a stack of cigarettes and two cell phones from a tuckshop owned by Abul Kalam, a foreign-national living in the phase three township.

While Ramaphiri and Mogopodi have, as of 27 January 2020, been acquitted of the armed robbery and kidnapping charges due to a lack of evidence, Mandindi and Modisenyane remain in the dock for the crime, linked by tracker information from a work vehicle and eyewitness testimony.

On Thursday, Advocate Jeremiah Pela, representing both the accused, argued before the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court the state has failed to provide tangible proof that the Navalsig police officers robbed Kalam at gunpoint before kidnapping him on 1 October 2018. Pela requested that the suspects be acquitted of the crime - much like their former co-accused - due to a lack of evidence. Pela named the conflicting eyewitness accounts and discrepancies between those testimonies and tracker information in support of this assertion.

One example Pela pointed out, is that while the victim in the matter testified that the suspects left him on the R702 road to Dewetsdorp between 20:09:49 pm and 20:13:13 pm after the robbery that evening, the tracker information indicates the vehicle was in fact in motion.

Magistrate Marina Voges was not entirely convinced, with her focus firmly placed on the reasons behind the police vehicle being stationed at the scene of the crime for 14 minutes. Mandindi and Modisenyane, who are out on R1000 bail, will return to court 16 on 5 March 2020. They remain out on bail and have allegedly resumed their duties at the Navalsig Police Station.

OFM News