Foreign national sentenced for illegal possession of explosives
· Citizen
A 35-year-old Zimbabwean man has been sentenced to seven years in jail for illegal possession of explosives and for being an illegal immigrant in South Africa.
Guezane Matseque appeared in the Modimolle Regional Court in Limpopo on Tuesday, where the sentence was handed down.
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Matseque was handcuffed in June last year by the Waterbury Flying Squad.
Arrest
Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale said Matseque’s sentence stems from an incident on 1 June 2025, when members of the Waterbury Flying Squad stopped a taxi near the Kranskop toll plaza for a search.
“During the search, the police found a brown bag in the taxi, which was found to contain explosives. Following the enquiries of ownership, the culprit was pointed out. Inside the bag, 500 detonator caps, four reels of detonator cord and four V6 explosives were found.
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CIT heists
Mogale said Matseque was arrested and the case was referred to the Polokwane Serious Organised Crime Investigation (SOCI) unit of the South African Police Service’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks, for further investigation, which led to the sentence.
“Matseque was sentenced yesterday, 31 March 2026, to seven years for illegal possession of explosives and 12 months imprisonment for being illegal in the country; both sentences are to run concurrently.”
He said members of the Serious Organised Crime Investigation unit in Polokwane welcomed the sentence as they continue their fight against cash-in-transit robberies and other aggravated robberies.
CIT suspect arrested
In January, police arrested a suspected cash-in-transit (CIT) robber and recovered explosives that were going to be used to commit the robbery in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
The man was handcuffed by officers just after midnight in Inanda on Saturday, 31 January 2026.
KZN police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said members of the Inanda Trio Task Team were patrolling in the vicinity of Ithendele Road and the M25 Curnick Ndlovu Highway when they noticed a white VW Polo parked on the roadside.
Netshiunda said officers approached the vehicle and, upon searching it, found explosives with detonators concealed in a backpack in the boot.
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