DURBAN – The basket of goods that 30-year-old Mbuso Moloi was filmed looting from the Woolworths store in July, could have cost no more than R500 had he paid for it but the Pinetown man’s actions is now seeing him paying dearly for it.
On Friday, the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) obtained a preservation of property order at the Durban High Court for Moloi’s Mercedes-Benz C300 Coupe - worth more than R500 000 – which he was seen loading the looted goods into.
When approached for comment by the Sunday Tribune at his Pinetown home at the weekend, Moloi denied that his car had been “seized”.
His attorney, Mfanafuthi Biyela, also claimed to have no knowledge of such action.
However, these pictures released by AFU show Moloi’s luxury vehicle in the State pound.
It is, however, not all lost for Moloi.
After Friday’s preservation order, he has 90 days to challenge it failing which the car, said to be worth R507 000, will be forfeited to the State.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Natasha Kara said that Moloi’s car was “preserved on the basis that it is an instrumentality of the offences”.
“The car will remain with the State until the court grants a forfeiture order,” she said.
In July, just days after former president Jacob Zuma was jailed for being in contempt of court, his supporters went on the rampage in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng where unprecedented looting took place.
In the mid of the chaos at a scene of looting at a Woolworths store in Glenwood, Moloi was captured looting a Woolworths store in Glenwood.
Of all the images and footage of the looting chaos that flooded social media, it was footage of Moloi carrying struggling to carry a fully-loaded Woolworths basket of goods to his luxury Mercedes that shocked South Africans.
As outrage grew over the incident and police vowed to track him down, Moloi handed himself over to police on July 28.
He is out on bail of R5 000 and is expected back in court on October 12.
IOL