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- Former GCIS CEO Themba Maseko and his wife were asleep when their house was broken into on Friday morning.
- It is alleged the perpetrators had been inside the roof of their bedroom.
- The police are investigating a case of burglary.
The former CEO of the Government Communications and Information Systems (GCIS), Themba Maseko, woke up to intruders inside the roof of his Sandton home in the early hours of Friday.
Speaking to News24 after the "terrifying" ordeal, Maseko said he and his wife had been asleep when she heard footsteps on the roof.
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"My wife heard the first sounds of noise coming from the roof. I thought she might have been hallucinating but then I heard the noises myself. I immediately woke up and went to the bathroom to investigate what was happening."1. A very suspicious crime event. At about 03:15 this morning we were woken up by noises in our roof directly above my bedroom. I woke up, checked through the bathroom window, saw a thug in the roof. I shouted and told my wife to press the panicked button. 2….she heard https://t.co/XBx4aiLqXw
— Themba Maseko (@MasekoThembaJ) January 14, 2022
He added when he tried to close the bathroom window, to his shock, he saw a tall, thin dark person on the roof.
Maseko said he found it interesting the intruders took nothing from their double-storey house.
Earlier this month, he was appointed as the new director of the executive development unit at the University of Witwatersrand's School of Governance.
Asked whether he thinks he might have been a target, Maseko said "it could very well possibly be".
"The timing of the event is quite suspect. It's very soon after the release of the Zondo Commission report. There is no sign of any forced entry, and this breaking seems very calculated.
"They broke into my house at 3:30 in the morning. There is no evidence of any attempted break-in on any of the lower floors of the house. The roof of the house is quite high, it would require quite a lot of attention to get onto it."
He said the first floor did not have security bars.
"Upon investigations, it was discovered that there were marks of shoes and hands grabbing on the walls which demonstrates that there was more than one person in the house to pull and help each other get into the roof.
"We have security at the front of the gate, electric fencing. Interestingly enough, the electric fencing did not trigger the alarm system. So, I do believe this a highly organised event."
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Maseko added he and his wife had been in Cape Town on vacation and returned to Johannesburg on 5 January.
"In the time that we were gone, we had received no notifications that someone had tried to break into the house, it was only when we returned that we experienced this terrifying ordeal."
Maseko said the police had not taken any statements, "they looked around and asked us if we were okay and then left".
"I had to drive down to Bramley police station to go and make a statement. Why they couldn't take my statement at the property when they showed up is quite mind-blowing."
The family said they were still quite shaken up about the ordeal but would be co-operating with the police.
"Right now, my wife and I are trying to take it hour by hour; we will be trimming our trees which seem to be quite an obstruction. We are just very grateful to be unharmed," Maseko added.
Police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Sello said they were investigating a case of attempted burglary.
"The case was not opened at the time of alleged incident, reason being that the complainant allegedly told the police that he is not opening a case as nothing was broken or stolen," added Sello.
