Sanral denies employee arrested for Mpumalanga cash heist, says ‘misunderstanding’
The South African National Roads Agency has denied that any of its employees were arrested in connection with a cash-in-transit heist in Mpumalanga.
Provincial police said on Thursday that a man was arrested while cleaning the road on the R40 near Hazyview shortly after the heist on Wednesday.
A security guard who worked as a co-driver was shot and killed, while two other guards sustained minor injuries.
SANRAL says the man is not an employee, but working for a company which is contracted to the agency.
It says the misunderstanding had been resolved and the person was released on the same day.
“Sanral would like to confirm that indeed one of the employees of VEA Construction, the main contractor responsible for road maintenance, was detained following a misunderstanding with the police. The said employee was sent out to assist in clearing the scene as would normally happen with any accident on the routes a contractor patrols,” it said in a statement.
“Upon their arrival at the scene, the contractor's employees found the police had barricaded the scene for investigation. Once the forensics team and the fire department had concluded their work, they instructed the team to proceed with the clean-up. The clean-up is required to get the operations of the road back on track such that traffic movement is not impeded.
“The misunderstanding and arrest happened when a second team of police officers found the member cleaning the scene. During the arrest, the said individual identified himself as a Sanral employee, as opposed to mentioning the contractor's company.”
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