[imagesource: YouTube / News24]

On Monday, at around 2:30PM, armed men robbed a courier truck parked outside the Democratic Alliance’s offices in Mill Street, Cape Town.

You know the one, close to Gardens Centre and just below the FNB.

Sadly, there’s nothing special about a daylight armed robbery in this country, but it’s what was taken that had the DA crying foul.

News24 reports that three men have now been arrested for allegedly stealing “sealed boxes initially believed to have contained confidential documents”.

Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi said the men fled the scene in a VW Polo, but were later caught by members of the Flying Squad in Heideveld:

DA MP Mat Cuthbert initially claimed the stolen boxes contained documents the party had been waiting for from the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), relating to a service provider it had apparently contracted for advice on how to distribute Covid-19 relief.

When describing the robbery earlier in the day, Cuthbert likened it “to a James Bond movie scene” and stated that “four gunmen intercepted the delivery and made off with the USB drive’’.

Cuthbert subsequently retracted his statement, saying he had made a mistake and should have made certain of all the facts before issuing the statement.

He then clarified that the DA had the documents from the NLC. It’s not yet known what was in the stolen boxes.

At least Cuthbert didn’t make a joke about how the National Lotteries Commission’s name is too long and too difficult to pronounce.

This footage was shared:

It’s mad that people are just casually strolling past, blissfully unaware there’s a robbery going on.

Makes me wonder how many times I’ve walked past a live crime scene none the wiser.

DA Federal chairperson Helen Zille also weighed in:

“My understanding was that the robbery happened; Mat was expecting a memory stick to be delivered.

“There was a misunderstanding as to whether it had been or not, and the conclusion was reached by those involved that it had not been. Then very large boxes were delivered to the DA that had nothing to do with us. Finally, a person established that the memory stick had in fact been delivered, and transferred them to Mat Cuthbert.”

Sounds like people were very quick to jump to conclusions before they had all the facts.

[source:news24]