Four men failed to get bail on appeal for allegedly plotting a cash heist.

• Four men were arrested in an undercover operation sparked by a tip-off that a cash van was going to be robbed at a Cape Town mall. 
• They were denied bail by a magistrate and because they say they are innocent, appealed to the Western Cape High Court for bail. 
• The court found that there is enough evidence against them to show that they would have been violent, and the courts can’t vacillate on these matters.

Four men arrested while allegedly on the brink of pulling off a violent cash-in-transit heist at a mall in Cape Town failed in their appeal for bail, with the Western Cape High Court saying courts cannot vacillate with violent crime. 

The appeal judgment by Judge Daniel Thulare paints a frightening picture of a what could have been a bloody shootout in a busy shopping mall on a Friday, thwarted by good police work and people who trusted the police sufficiently to tip them off. 

“Courts have an obligation to ensure that the criminal justice system remains a beacon of hope for communities in distress,” said Thulare in the judgment handed down on Friday. 

He said that if the case goes to trial and is proved, it will signify a turning point in people trusting the police enough to give them information, in the wake of collusion between gangs and some police officers that cause mistrust.

The case’s particulars built so far against Siphelele Ngcobo, Nkosomzi Cuba, Unathi Mooi, and Siphumelele Figlan are chilling. 

According to the judgment, two of the four men used to work for Fidelity. 

The police received  information that they allegedly planned to pull off the heist of a cash van at Eerste River Mall in Cape Town. 

Their information was that the guards would be robbed of their firearms and money, and if they resisted, they would be shot and killed by members of the heavily armed syndicate. They had an inside informant who told them which day the van would have the most money.

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The police got the official go-ahead for an undercover operation to arrest them before the robbery, to protect all of the people who would have been in the mall at the time. 

Crime Intelligence and the police’s intervention unit dotted themselves inconspicuously around the mall on the day of the planned heist. They started recognising their subjects from the intelligence they had gathered during the operation. 

Two were casually leaning against a KFC fence near the entrance on 13 October 2022, two more were in the parking lot, one inside a vehicle the police were looking out for and another standing outside a bakkie. They allegedly planned to speed off in that car, and switch to a taxi. 

The police closed in, searched the two at the entrance and arrested them for possession of firearms. A man on a cellphone, also among their targets, started walking away from the other two, and was searched and also arrested. 

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Police also arrested one of the two men at the bakkie. The other one got away. One of the men damaged his phone during his arrest to make it harder to get information off it. 

The police collected evidence at the scene, fingerprints and DNA, and took photographs, and the group was charged with conspiracy to commit cash-in-transit robbery, illegal possession of firearms and illegal possession of ammunition.

The men said during their bail appeal they knew nothing about the gear found on them and in their car and they should get bail. 

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The court heard that Mooi and Figlan were previously employed as armed security guards for Fidelity. 

Only one of the applicants – Figlan– had a fixed income and said that he was a money lender. 

Thulare said that in crimes as violent as these, the National Prosecuting Authority has to “put its best foot forward”, starting at the bail stage, particularly in cases where civilians in a public space were at risk. 

He said:

“It is the story of a nation’s bravery and resilience in rising against the iron fist of armed syndicates and gangs that rule our streets, our businesses, our communities and our very existence through fear instilled by extra-judicial execution of those who speak out, act against and commit to stop lawlessness.”

He could find nothing wrong with the magistrate’s decision to not grant bail, and dismissed the appeals.