School burglar gets an effective six years imprisonment

By Dumisani Hlatswayo

The Station Commander of the Ivory Park SAPS welcomed a local man’s sentencing for burglarising the JB Matabane Secondary School in August last year.

Sizwe Tshabalala, 33, of Extension Ten Ivory Park, was sentenced to an effective six years in prison by the Tembisa Magistrate Court on Friday. Tshabalala, considered a serial thief, was caught by security officers of the said school while he was busy stealing stationery and foodstuffs from the school. Seeing that he had been seen, Tshabalala dropped the items and fled but was caught while still on the school’s grounds.

“We are glad and proud that once he was assigned the docket, Detective Constable Elvis Mangena made a thorough background check on Tshabalala, thus ensuring that bail was successfully denied and that he underwent the entire trial while in jail,” said Brigadier David Mbongeni Ngcobo, the Ivory Park SAPS station commander.

Brigadier Ngcobo further congratulated Mangena for the sentencing, adding that sentences, although meted by the courts, rely heavily on the amount of evidence gathered by the police.

Brigadier Ngcobo said that the local schools will be delighted to know that one of the people who were bothering them has been withdrawn from their community for some time.