Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya in Makhado, South Africa
IT took 17 long years, but the law has finally caught up with two South African men who tried to smuggle R7 million worth of heroin through Beitbridge Border Post in 2008.
Johannes James Harry (56) and Sobhuza Aubrey Lingwati (70), were convicted at the Protea Magistrates Court and each sentenced to six years in jail for drug possession, manufacturing, and corruption.
Their downfall began back in 2008, when police officers at Beitbridge stopped a suspicious truck coming from Zimbabwe. Inside, they found a false compartment welded into the trailer and packed with drugs.
“Hawks investigators used a grinder to open the secret chamber and discovered heroin worth over R7 million,” confirmed Warrant Officer Lethunya Mmuroa of the Hawks.
“The driver, Lingwati, was arrested on the spot. Later, his partner Harry tried to bribe the police not to proceed with the case, but that landed him in handcuffs too.”
Following the arrests, the Hawks raided a Zuurbekom plot in Gauteng, uncovering a drug manufacturing base linked to the pair.
The long-drawn case, handled by the Polokwane-based Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation Unit, was repeatedly delayed but finally came to a close this month, nearly two decades later.
Both men were also declared unfit to own firearms, and their truck and trailer were forfeited to the State as part of their punishment.
