Taxi Driver Who Used His Vehicle To Transport July 2021 Looters Sentenced To Five Years In Jail

The Durban regional court convicted Lungelo Nthenga, 24, after he pleaded guilty to three counts of theft.

His conviction relates to incidents in the Mobeni industrial area in July 2021, during the unprecedented looting which engulfed the province.

In his guilty plea, Nthenga told the court he was a taxi driver during the unrest.

He had used a vehicle to transport people to loot at a site in the Mobeni business industrial area, along South Coast road.

Nthenga was arrested when the vehicle he was driving was stopped at a roadblock during a stop-and-search operation conducted by police in a bid to clamp down on looters.

His vehicle had been loaded with tinned fish, rice as well as items from the surrounding warehouses which had been looted.

During court proceedings, regional prosecutor Kuveshni Pillay, presented statistics from the SA Property Owners Association, which suggested the province had lost of R50bn during the unrest.

She also told the court the unrest and looting also caused a loss of foreign investment and tourism.