Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
May 27 1999
Three members of the Pan Africanist Congress former armed wing APLA told the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission today how they killed two security guards in a cash in transit heist in Cleveland, south of Johannesburg in 1991.
Edwin Simelane, Trevor Masilo and Thembinkosi Ngubeni, serving 28 years imprisonment for killing two "Trust Cash" security guards Mr. David Williams and Mr. Moses Manuel on a junction road near Cleveland on September 20, 1991. The men testified that three of their accomplices Bongani "Matsapa" Moyo, Freddie Makwe and Clive Majola were shot dead by the police a few months after the incident.
Testifying in Bloemfontein about how they attacked the vehicle transporting cash, the men told the amnesty committee that they had been trailing the van before it came to a halt at a junction road near Cleveland. Three members of the group armed with AK47 rifles accosted the van and a number of shots were fired forcing the driver of the security van to flee badly injured. The attackers then drove away with the vehicle and another guard.
The body of the guard was bundled out of the vehicle and the vehicle later abandoned at a dumping site between Spruitview and Vosloorus and the men made off with more than R150 000 in cash.
After realising that the police net was slowly closing in on them, the men fled the area for hiding, they said. Three of them were shot dead by the police after allegedly attempting to resist arrest and Simelane, Masilo and Ngubeni arrested separately following intensive investigation by the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit.
They also testified that the money was handed over to their commander Moyo who later gave it to the PAC which was cash-strapped at the time. The committee also heard that Ngubeni managed to escape from Leeukop Maximum prison, Johannesburg after a firearm was smuggled into the prison.
However, he was later re-arrested following a shoot-out with the police in which he was slightly injured.
Attempts by the TRC to contact the deceased's next of kin drew a blank.