Cheque fraud suspect

linked to store robbery

By Lucas Mati

EAST LONDON -- A suspect in last month's R20 000 cheque fraud at Sondela Supermarket in Nqamakwe has been linked to the killing of a JH security guard in an earlier robbery in Butterworth in which about R500 000 was seized.

A photograph of the suspect, Mr Piet Selemo Rathebe, appeared in the Daily Dispatch of January 23, two days after he and eight others allegedly made off with R20000 cash after negotiating with supermarket staff to cash several fraudulent Trust Bank government cheques.

He claimed at the time to be a policeman working in East London, but did not say at which police station he worked.

Mr Rathebe and his friends fled when an employee, Ms Soula Drakatos, tried to phone the police after she became suspicious of the men.

Police alleged yesterday that Mr Rathebe was among seven armed men who shot and killed a security guard, Mr Andile Nombembe, before fleeing with almost R500 000 in cash in a Butterworth robbery earlier in January.

The men entered Metro Cash and Carry store at 9am as security guards were collecting money from the store for banking.

Store employees and guards were forced to lie on the floor at gunpoint as the robbers disarmed the guards of two 9 mm pistols and an R5 rifle.

Mr Nombembe was shot twice in the stomach and once in the head.

He died on arrival at Butterworth Hospital.

Butterworth murder and robbery unit spokesman Inspector Bongani Maqhashalala said people who saw the photograph of Mr Rathebe in the newspaper had positively linked him to the Metro Cash and Carry armed robbery.

Mr Rathebe and other suspects are being sought in connection with murder, armed robbery and fraud.