City of Johannesburg ‘office burglar’ also hit Gauteng provincial offices

The City of Johannesburg is not the only entity to have been targeted by an alleged serial burglar with a “penchant” for computer hard drives.

TimesLIVE has learnt that the woman allegedly broke into the Gauteng e-government department offices in the Johannesburg CBD.

The incident happened in March 2021. The suspect was allegedly caught red-handed, arrested, appeared in court but was released on bail.

She allegedly did not return to court and was regarded as a wanted suspect.

Images of that arrest depict the woman dressed in black and khaki being handcuffed.

The woman was arrested again on Monday, shortly after allegedly dismantling computers at the City of Johannesburg offices in Braamfontein.

Lucky Sindane of the forensic unit of the City of Johannesburg on Monday said she acted deranged after being apprehended by security guards and JMPD officers.

“She was pretending to be crazy and making all sorts of utterances. She said her mom was a witch and it was her who had sent her to commit witchcraft in the offices,” said Sindane.

But instead of potions she was allegedly found in possession of computer hard drives and a tablet used to verify identity numbers during elections.

An assortment of tools were also found but Sindane said there was something else in her backpack.

“She had her ID and vaccination card,” he said.

The second-floor offices that were broken into house IEC offices and the health department.

Specific computers were allegedly targeted in the IEC offices on the second floor.

Upon hearing voices, the woman allegedly attempted to hide but was found behind a door, according to CCTV footage.

This is the fourth time that the suspect has allegedly broken into City of Johannesburg offices. An incident happened last week.

She allegedly first targeted the offices in October 2020, and was arrested, but the case was thrown out of court due to a lack of evidence.

While the identity of the woman remains undisclosed until her first court appearance, Sindane revealed that she had five companies registered on the city’s database as suppliers.

He could not immediately confirm who the companies were.

After the arrest on Monday, Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse expressed her frustration over burglaries allegedly committed by the same suspect.

She said security would be strengthened at offices.

“The nerve centre of service delivery in the city cannot be continuously targeted by a single criminal, who when arrested then evades prosecution by the state’s criminal justice system,” Phalatse said in a statement.

“The suspect, who clearly has a penchant for the city’s computer hardware, has on several occasions evaded prosecution for similar alleged crimes due to a lack of evidence.

“This is alarming and frustrating, as it shows deep inefficiencies in the national government’s criminal justice system, and hampers our efforts as the multiparty government to build a safe and secure city.”

The woman will appear in the Hillbrow magistrate’s court on Wednesday.

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