Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - Police in Mpumalanga have distanced themselves from claims that they recovered a truck that was hijacked on the N12 while transporting TVET college exam papers to Limpopo.
Yesterday, DA provincial leader Jane Sithole told the media that the party’s councillors were able to help recover the truck, which carried papers for engineering students.
The truck was hijacked in the early hours of Tuesday while en route to an exam centre in Limpopo.
“The DA in Mpumalanga has successfully helped the Delmas police station to locate the origin of exam papers found in a hijacked truck dumped in the vicinity of the town of Delmas.
“On Tuesday, the police found a suspected hijacked truck dumped in Delmas. On closer inspection, they found it contained exam papers," Sithole said.
She added that the police contacted DA councillors in the area, requesting help with contact details for education officials.
“After being contacted, councillor Diana Bath of the DA in Victor Khanye Local Municipality called the Gauteng Department of Education on Tuesday.
“She found that the truck was indeed from Gauteng and was on its way to deliver exam papers in Limpopo when it was hijacked, on Monday evening or Tuesday morning.”
When asked for confirmation of the recovery of the truck that was transporting exam papers, provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala denied the claims.
“There is nothing like that. But there was a hijacked truck recovered at Delmas,” said Mohlala.
Mohlala confirmed that the truck police recovered in Delmas was travelling from Gauteng to Limpopo. He, however, said there was no truth to the claims that it was the same truck that couriered exam papers.
He said police also learnt that the hijackers were described as five armed men masquerading as police officers.
“Most of the load was missing. A case of hijacking with an additional charge of armed robbery is being investigated by the police.”
Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi was unavailable for comment.
Pretoria News