Mpuma starts tourist crime unit
2002-11-25 10:50
Nelspruit - Mpumalanga police commissioner Eric Nkabinde has ordered the formation of a task team to deal with all crimes related to international tourists.
Superintendent Isak van Zyl said Nkabinde told Lowveld commissioner Frank Sibulela to form a team of 10 detectives to take over all investigations into a spate of attacks on tourists in recent weeks.
The team also will be responsible for dealing with any such crimes in future.
The most recent of the attacks was on Saturday when three German nationals were hijacked near Nelspruit.
Van Zyl said Winfried Birwe, his wife, Monica, and a friend, Rita Speckt, were driving a hired Mercedes Benz to Swaziland when they were hijacked by two armed men.
The two men approached the car after Birwe left the vehicle briefly. They smashed a car window and drove off with the two women.
The hijackers dropped the woman off at a T-junction outside Kanyamanzane near Nelspruit and made off with the car and the Germans' possessions.
Six due to appear in court
The car was found abandoned by police on Sunday. All the luggage and documentation had been stolen.
Six men are expected to appear in court this week in connection with crimes against tourists.
Four are expected to appear in the Barberton magistrate's court on Tuesday in connection with the rape and abduction of a British tourist and the murder of Mozambican man.
Eric Msibi, Willie Mgweneya, Sipho Mbokane and Zimbabwean Michael Dube will stand trial for the 14-hour attack on the 29-year-old Briton and her 26-year-old South African friend on November 17.
Mozambican Domingo Chambal was murdered when he came to the aid of the couple.
Two men - Prince Mogane (19) and Richard Mashego (42) - will appear in the Graskop magistrate's court on Wednesday in connection with the murder of British tourist Diane Conway (59) at the Royal Hotel in Pilgrim's Rest on October 22.
Her 55-year-old husband, Jon, was shot in the neck and seriously wounded.
- SAPA