'Prison officials helped me escape'

Arguments in mitigation and aggravation of the sentence of serial escape artist Bongani Moyo will be made in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Moyo appeared in the dock with Khumbulani Sibanda on Monday, after the court separated their trial from that of Leon Ncube and Thabani Sibanda.

Judge Natvarlal Ranchod postponed the case against Ncube and Thabani Sibanda to 12 August, when it is scheduled to run until 23 August.

Plea bargain

Corroborating each other's versions, Moyo, 29, and Khumbulani Sibanda, 30, submitted sworn statements as part of a plea bargain with the State.

They said they were guilty and that they had always known their actions violated other people's freedoms.

The Zimbabweans are facing charges relating to a series of armed bank robberies in Gauteng and North West in 2011.

The charges against them include racketeering, robbery with aggravating circumstances, possession of unlicensed firearms, and escaping from lawful custody.

On Monday Moyo and Khumbulani said they understood the charges. Ranchod adjourned the matter until Tuesday for the submission of arguments.

Escape

In Moyo's statement he said prison officials helped him and Khumbulani escape from custody.

Part of his statement read: "While I was in prison, considering the inhuman and uncomfortable life my kids were experiencing back home and how my parents were struggling, I then planned with Khumbulani, Max, Nqo and another guy only known to Max, to make a life for them [the families].

"We planned to make money and the only way was to rob banks and provide for our families. I and Khumbulani then worked our way out of prison. We planned the escape and were successful with the help of prison officials."

After escaping from Boksburg prison in March 2011, the men ganged up and held meetings in Pretoria and Rustenburg to check whether "the strategy in robbing banks" would work out, and to cement logistical issues.

"Some days we would send people to go and study bank buildings and cash halls for us to make entry and exit familiar. [During robberies] we never preferred using our cars and we always hired people who knew nothing of our mission to transport us."

Moyo said someone identified only as Max made the transport arrangements.

Robberies

Moyo said the gang's first robbery was on 12 April 2011, when R62 000 was seized at gunpoint from the tellers at Absa Bank's Roodepoort branch, in Johannesburg.

The second robbery was in Pretoria on 19 April at the FNB branch in Gezina.

"I was heading the show. I went in there [the bank] and told everyone to be still and then saw a manager, pointed her with a firearm and demanded money. I only learned later that her name was Michelle Jacobs," Moyo said in his statement.

"She was very scared at the sight of a firearm. With force and violence, we then took cash from her and left the bank."

On the same day, the gang robbed the Standard Bank branch in Hatfield, Pretoria.

"We threatened the personnel with firearms and, with force and threats of violence, took from them cash in the amount of R38 463.96. We demanded their co-operation and promised not to shoot."

He said after the Hatfield robbery, the gang had wanted to take a break. [But we] realised that the money was not enough, given that we had to share and we have bigger families back home to take care of."

The next robbery followed on 21 April at the Nedbank branch in Rustenburg.

"In this bank they [the staff] were a bit resistant, and we had to jump over the counters to collect the money ourselves. We threatened the person who was in charge and took from him an amount of R65 000," said Moyo.

Subsequent robberies were carried out at other banks in Boksburg, Pretoria and Roodepoort.