Ten men convicted of 19 armed chain-store robberies across KwaZulu-Natal

Ten men have been convicted of 19 counts of armed business robbery at chain stores in KwaZulu-Natal, with the Durban Regional Court now hearing submissions ahead of sentencing.

The robberies took place between 2017 and 2019 in Durban Central, Pinetown, Tongaat, Estcourt and KwaDukuza. As IOL reported on 20 October, the men appeared in the Durban Regional Court this week for mitigation of sentence.

According to the charge sheet, the stores hit included American Swiss Jewellers and Sportscene in Durban in November 2017, Jet Stores in December 2017, Clicks in West Street in February 2018, Exact Store in West Street in April 2018, Total Sports and Exact in KwaDukuza in July and November 2018, Markham in August 2018 and the Fix at City View Mall in March 2019.

Most of the counts were read with common purpose. One of the ten was also convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.

A former detective with the Provincial Organised Crime unit, Rajen Nagesar, told the court that a group of 10 to 15 men had been robbing stores of cash, jewellery and cellphones. In court papers he named the group the Man G Gang, and said that as investigating officer he linked the men to the crimes through identification parades, fingerprints and video footage.

Nagesar said one of the men had also been linked to a similar offence in Cape Town.

The men are Thabiso Mdletshe, Philani Magongo, Wanda Mcwabe, Michael Nxumalo, Khanyisani Thusi, Lindani Ndlovu, Thokozani Mdlalose, Sandile Ngcobo, Sabelo Shandu and Andile Mchunu.

Philani Magongo asked the court to take into account that he had spent close to five years awaiting trial. He was arrested in April 2019 and released on bail in June 2023. He told the court that while out on bail he had attended every court appearance and had found work as a delivery driver, and that his employer had written to the court describing him in good terms. He said he wanted to be at home with his family and asked the court for mercy.

Prosecutor Surekha Marimuthu is expected to continue addressing the court on sentencing. Some of the men were brought to court by Department of Correctional Services staff because they had been imprisoned on other robbery matters outside Durban, details expected to emerge during sentencing.

For shop workers and store managers along the province’s retail strips, armed robbery is not an abstraction. Chain stores are targeted because they carry cash, jewellery and easily moved stock such as cellphones, and a robbery inside a mall puts staff and shoppers in the same room as the firearms. The convictions cover a run of offences that stretched across five KwaZulu-Natal towns and the Durban city centre over roughly 16 months, which is the kind of spread that organised crime units watch for.

Sentencing submissions continue in the Durban Regional Court.