The town’s CBD was once again the scene of an armed robbery on Monday morning when two armed suspects overpowered a security guard at the entrance to one of Standard Bank’s local branches.

The drama unfolded at about 10:40 as the 38-year-old security guard was getting out of his armoured transport vehicle with two bags of money and an empty cash container. The guard headed towards the entrance of the bank and was about to enter the bank when he was confronted by two male suspects.

One of the suspects assaulted the security guard with a pistol, while the other suspect grabbed both bags of money. They immediately fled the scene, but were chased by several members of the public. The two suspects jumped into their parked getaway car and drove off.

The local SAPS were notified and were on the scene within seconds. Two arrests followed short afterwards after members of the public pointed out the robbers to the police.

According to Inspector Daniel Ndlovu, local spokesperson for the SAPS, the suspects are 19 and 28 years old respectively. He added that the police also confiscated three cellphones and the pistol used to carry out the robbery. The stolen money is estimated to be about R121 487. At the time of going to press it was not sure whether the suspects had appeared in court or not.