RESIDENTS of Zone 3 in Sebokeng, Vereeniging, woke up to explosions and a shoot-out between the police, security guards and a group of armed suspects on Wednesday, 1 February.
The group stormed into a shopping complex and bombed several doors of a liquor outlet and phone shop. While packing bottles in their cars, cops and security guards arrived.
The group started shooting at officers, who had called cops for back-up, before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash, cigarettes, booze and cellphones. No one was injured in the incident.
A community member, who lived close to the complex, told Daily Sun that when they heard explosives, they also came out to try and protect the centre but the thugs were heavily armed.
Ward 41 Councillor Tumi Mochawe said he was glad that the explosives used did not make huge damage to the centre.
He further thanked community members for trying to protect it.
Mochawe said every week, businesses were getting closed because of thugs.
He said this was taking away people’s jobs in townships while the unemployment rate was high. He said he was hoping for the police to arrest all criminals damaging businesses in the region.
Gauteng Police spokeswoman Colonel Dimakatso Sello said a case of business robbery was opened for further investigations after a few stores at Sebokeng zone 3 shopping complex was robbed in the early hours of 01 February 2023.
Sello said that it is reported that a security officer was on duty when he was attacked by six unknown men wearing masks.
The men took his cellphone and locked him in the guard room where he heard multiple gunshots and he was allegedly later freed by two of his colleagues who managed to flee at the time of the attack.
It is further reported that a security vehicle was also shot at while responding to an alarm and no one was reported injured, suspects are still at large with an undisclosed amount of money, liquor, cigarettes and cellphones, said Sello
