Minibus taxi driver hailed as hero for apprehending armed robbers

It was the swift response of a courageous minibus taxi driver to pleas for help from off-duty security guards that landed three alleged armed robbers in court on Friday. 

Police praised the “courageous heroic taxi driver” who sprang into action while passing the scene of a robbery in Asanda Village, Lwandle, Cape Town, on Wednesday evening. 

“Preliminary investigation suggests that the victims, off-duty security guards, were travelling homeward when the driver was accosted and robbed of his telephone and wallet at gunpoint when he stopped at the corner of Hlathi Drive and Solomon Street,” said police spokesperson Lt-Col Malcolm Pojie. 

“It is further alleged that the two accomplices accosted the rest of the passengers and robbed them of their personal belongings. The three suspects left on foot.” 

Some of the victims managed to flee and sought help from an approaching minibus taxi. 

“It is reported that the taxi driver chased down two of the suspects and apprehended them whereafter he handed them over to police who placed them in custody,” said Pojie. 

“While police were processing the two, the third accomplice, coincidently or not, a colleague of those who were robbed, surrendered to police in acknowledgment of his involvement in the commission of the crime.” 

The trio, aged 26 to 33, appeared in the Strand magistrate’s court on charges related to armed robbery, were remanded and will be back in court on April 28. 

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