NEWS IN: Sthembiso Gcaba, linked to the notorious KZN taxi family Business, the GcabaBrothers, was caught red handed last week by police withdrawing R180,800 using stolen SASSA cards , Sthembiso was Granted R5k Bail
Durinng the arrest 70 cards and his luxury Mercedes were seized by SAPS.
His arrest came after an intelligence driven operation that was conducted by the Durban Central District Task Team.
The team pounced on the suspect ( Sthembiso Gcaba ) who was withdrawing cash from different Sassa cards at an ATM on Anton Lembede Street. The suspect was driving an exclusive Mercedes Benz which he recently bought.
Gcaba recently purchased a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 63 S valued at R3.4m. It had yet to be registered with licence plates when the police seized it. According to the charge sheet, Gcaba made 133 withdrawals on Saturday, withdrawing R1,800 each time, amounting to R239,400.
Chris Gounden, representing Gcaba, said his client had no previous convictions or pending cases. Gounden informed magistrate Vanitha Armu that Gcaba was a taxi owner but could only afford R5,000 bail as the taxi industry had been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is understood that Gcaba has more than 30 taxis in his fleet. In October he purchased two new Quantum minibus taxis for his firstborn son.
The 47-year-old chairperson of the North Beach taxi association appeared in the Durban magistrate's court on Thursday, after his initial appearance on Monday, where he was granted bail of R5,000.
Sources close to the investigation told TimesLIVE that the Sassa cards, loaded with wads of cash, allegedly formed part of a batch that were swapped out of a police station exhibit room and replaced with blank Sassa cards.
On October 6 an Inanda detective was arrested by members of Phoenix police after she was found in possession of 48 Sassa cards.
Sgt Hloniphile Blose, who is out on R10k bail, appeared in the Durban commercial crimes court on February 25, where her case was adjourned to April 22
Blose could have made close to R3m in withdrawals from the 48 cards she had in her possession, which were due to expire between April 2023 and July 2027.
SASSA provincial spokesperson Sandy Golwana said their fraud unit was following leads into whether the cases may be linked.
Commenting on Thursday's proceedings, Golwana said: “We know the police will continue with their investigations into this matter. We are happy with the process thus far. We welcome the arrest. What is key is that he is not a flight risk and they have bail conditions.”
Meanwhile, Mandla Gcaba, who previously ran the Gcaba brothers' taxi empire with his siblings, and who has close family ties to former president Jacob Zuma, denied that Sthembiso was his brother.
Mandla had previously told TimesLIVE that he had since left his brothers to their own devices in the taxi industry, having walked away from the family empire.
He said he wasn't able to confirm or deny if the arrested taxi boss was known to his nephews and brothers.
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