Toll plaza stop nets hijacked Hilux and a 60-year-old suspect

A 60-year-old man was arrested at the Nkomazi Toll Plaza in Mpumalanga early on Sunday, September 27, after police stopped a silver Toyota Hilux double cab and established it had been hijacked in Nelspruit.

As IOL reported on September 29, the arrest happened at about 05:20 during a stop-and-search operation at the toll plaza. Officers spotted the vehicle approaching, stopped it for inspection and found it carrying Mpumalanga registration plates.

Representatives from a vehicle tracking company arrived at the scene and helped officers establish the status of the vehicle. Further checks were done to confirm its correct registration details, and the information retrieved showed the Hilux had been hijacked in Nelspruit, where a criminal case had already been opened.

The man was arrested on the spot and charged with possession of a suspected stolen motor vehicle. He is expected to appear in the Barberton Magistrate’s Court soon.

The arrest came during a weekend in which police recovered several other hijacked vehicles in the province. According to police, the Ehlanzeni Anti-Hijacking Task Team recovered three further hijacked vehicles around the Ehlanzeni District over the same weekend, bringing the total recovered in the district to at least four.

Mpumalanga provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Apaphia Modise commended the officers and the tracking company personnel for their swift response and their continued collaboration in recovering hijacked and stolen vehicles in the province.

Hijacking investigations in South Africa routinely depend on that kind of cooperation. Tracking companies hold the location data and the contract records that tie a vehicle to its lawful owner, and police use those records to establish whether a car has been reported stolen and to link a suspect to a case already on the system. A stop at a toll plaza is one of the few points where a vehicle moving between provinces can be checked against that data in real time, which is why toll plazas and weighbridges feature regularly in recovery operations.

For an ordinary motorist, the practical effect is that a hijacked vehicle recovered and a suspect charged is a case that can proceed rather than a file that stalls. The charge of possession of a suspected stolen motor vehicle places the burden on the accused to explain how he came to be driving the vehicle, and the existing Nelspruit case gives prosecutors a second thread to work with.

Possession of a suspected stolen motor vehicle is a criminal offence under South African law, and a person convicted of it can face a fine or imprisonment. The man arrested at the toll plaza has not been convicted of anything, and the case against him has yet to be tested in court.

Source: IOL, 60-year-old man arrested with hijacked Hilux at Mpumalanga toll plaza