HE had been arrested 42 times. His criminal record stretches back to 1998. Yet somehow, a 64-year-old serial robber – linked to armed robbery, possession of an unlicensed firearm, fraud and impersonating a police officer – was still a free man, still prowling the R24 highway outside OR Tambo International Airport, still preying on unsuspecting travellers.
On Saturday, his run finally ended.
In what police are describing as a major breakthrough in the fight against one of South Africa’s most persistent and brazen crime typologies – airport-following robberies carried out by fake police officers – the South African Police Service arrested the suspect within hours of his latest alleged attack, seizing a silver Suzuki Swift that detectives believe has been used as an instrument of crime on numerous occasions.
The Brazen Attack That Triggered the Breakthrough
The chain of events that led to the arrest began on Saturday afternoon on the R24 near the Barbara off-ramp, a stretch of highway that has become notorious as a hunting ground for criminals targeting airport-bound travellers. Three high-ranking senior police officials from an unnamed African country were travelling to OR Tambo in an e-hailing vehicle when the Suzuki Swift carrying four men forced the driver to pull over.
What followed was a calculated, well-rehearsed performance. The four men climbed out and presented themselves as police officers. The driver and his passengers had no immediate reason to doubt them. Then came the robbery: money, watches and cellphones stripped from a police general and two fellow officers.
The irony of the target, foreign police officials victimised by men pretending to be police, underscores the sheer audacity of the syndicate, and raises uncomfortable questions about how long such a group could operate unchecked on one of South Africa’s most travelled and visible corridors.
Within hours of the robbery, SAPS officers traced the vehicle and made the arrest. Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed the swift seizure of the Suzuki Swift and the detention of the 64-year-old suspect. The speed of the response was notable. But it was what investigators found when they dug into the suspect’s background that sent shockwaves through the case.
Forty-two prior arrests. Charges spanning armed robbery, possession of an unlicensed firearm, fraud and impersonating a police officer. A criminal biography that begins in 1998 and reads like a catalogue of systemic failure.
“An investigation is also underway to ascertain how a serial robber of this nature is still roaming the streets of SA and not convicted and serving time in a jail cell,” Mathe said — a statement that is as much an indictment of the justice system as it is a police announcement.
It is a question that demands an answer, and quickly.
OR Tambo: A Target That Never Went Away
Saturday’s arrest did not happen in a vacuum. OR Tambo International Airport, Africa’s busiest aviation hub, has been plagued by organised crime for decades. A documented pattern of criminality at and around the airport includes follow-home robberies, cargo heists, armed hold-ups in the parking areas, and attacks on the R24 — the very road where Saturday’s robbery occurred.
The debate about security at OR Tambo has long been complicated by disagreements over whether incidents represent organised syndicate activity or opportunistic crime — a debate critics argue misses the point entirely. Saturday’s arrest, with its trail of 42 prior charges and a vehicle believed to have been used in multiple crimes, would seem to settle that debate decisively in favour of the syndicate theory.
The tactic of impersonating police officers to rob travellers is not new in South Africa’s crime landscape. In 2017, three men convicted for an airport robbery carried out the crime by entering OR Tambo wearing police uniforms — and were collectively sentenced to 90 years in prison. That those sentences and prosecutions did not deter the emergence of a new syndicate employing the same modus operandi speaks to a deeper problem: the intimidating, trust-exploiting nature of fake police activity makes it devastatingly effective, and evidently, lucrative enough to keep criminal networks invested.
“Broken the Back” — But the Hunt Continues
Police believe Saturday’s arrest has “broken the back” of the syndicate responsible for the airport-following robberies. It is a confident claim, and one that the speed and efficiency of the arrest partially justifies. But the SAPS has also been candid that three other suspects involved in Saturday’s robbery remain at large. The Suzuki Swift may have been grounded, but the network it served is not yet fully dismantled.
The 64-year-old suspect is expected to appear before the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 3 March 2026. The charges he faces will add to an already extraordinary criminal dossier — one that raises fundamental questions not just about his guilt, but about why it took this long.
The Systemic Question South Africa Must Confront
Beyond the immediate arrest lies a structural reckoning. How does a man with 42 prior arrests — for crimes including armed robbery and impersonating a police officer — remain free to allegedly commit the same crimes for nearly three decades? The answer likely lies somewhere in the intersection of case backlogs, prosecutorial attrition, bail provisions and a criminal justice pipeline that has long struggled under its own weight.
The SAPS is investigating precisely this question. But the investigation into how the system failed should carry the same urgency as the hunt for the three remaining suspects.
For the families of robbery victims along the R24 – and for the three foreign police officials who experienced the indignity of being robbed by men pretending to be their colleagues – the arrest is welcome. Whether it marks a true turning point or another moment of promising action followed by systemic drift, remains to be seen.
What is not in doubt is this: if South Africa is to protect the millions of travellers who pass through OR Tambo every year, and the reputation that Africa’s gateway airport carries with them, the work cannot stop with one man and one silver Suzuki Swift.
