Similarities between NPA and Hawks burglaries

Police and the National Prosecuting Authority have gone to ground over a burglary at the Pretoria offices of prosecutors.

Burglars gained access to offices on the second floor of the Church Square building – which is home to the authority's North Gauteng division – by climbing through several small windows situated above the office doors.

The offices belong to several high-ranking prosecutors.

It is not known how the thieves‚ who made off with suspected high-profile crime dockets during the early hours of this morning – managed to gain access to the highly secure building.

Neither the police nor the NPA returned calls for comment on the burglary this morning.

The burglary follows a break-in at the Hawks headquarters in Pretoria last week‚ when thieves stole hard drives and computers that contained personal staff information.

The information was at the centre of a high-level anti-corruption investigation into staff appointments made by former Hawks boss Berning Ntlemeza.

Ntlemeza was fired by Police Minister Fikile Mbalula earlier this year.

Ntlemeza's replacement‚ Lieutenant-General Yolisa Matakata‚ ordered the investigation.

A Hawks source said the burglary at the NPA and their offices bore striking resemblance to each other.

“There were no signs of forced entry. The thieves walked past numerous offices and either went upstairs to offices‚ or as in the burglary at our headquarters to the back of the building.

“Both of these cases are being looked at as possibly being linked.”

The policeman said they would also be looking to see if any links could be made to the burglary at the office of the Chief Justice earlier this year.

“It's still early days‚ but there are just too many similarities for all of these cases not to be looked at together‚” he said.

Hawks spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi‚ speaking about the investigation into the burglary at the Hawks head office‚ said that a team had been established to investigate the thefts.

“No arrests have been made and none of the equipment recovered yet‚” he said.

He said they had not been tasked to investigate the burglary at the NPA office.

-TimesLIVE