A brazen cash-in-transit heist unfolded on a busy stretch of the N6 near East London on Tuesday, where a heavily armed gang of 18 attackers rammed and bombed a G4S armoured vehicle, forcing two security guards to flee for their lives.
The gang is believed to be the same one that has tormented N6 CIT operators and eluded police for the past two years.
This time, the attackers blew up an armoured G4S vehicle on the road near Ducats just outside East London towards Stutterheim, at about 3pm on Tuesday.
They took off with an undisclosed amount of cash as well as the guards’ weapons.
Frantic voice notes circulated on WhatsApp as police, community patrol groups and private security gave chase and blocked sections of the road in attempts to apprehend the brazen robbers.
The burnt-out shell of the cash van blocked much of the road, slowing down traffic attempting to pass the crime scene before it was blocked off by police.
Bomb experts were also called out to deactivate any live explosives that might have been left at the scene.
Provincial transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose said bystanders had reported a group of heavily armed men with automatic rifles on the scene, with gunshots fired.
However, he said it was still unclear whether the robbers and security guards had exchanged fire.
The road would be closed to traffic for “six to 10 hours as police continue with their investigation”.
He confirmed there had been no fatalities in the attack.
The case was immediately taken over by the Hawks.
When a Dispatch team arrived at the scene, the bombed-out armoured vehicle was still lying in the road and the two security guards were giving statements to the police.
Residents in the area pointed out that there was a school just metres away from the attack site and said repeated robberies and indiscriminate gunfire left them in fear for their children’s lives.
Provincial Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana said the G4S vehicle had been travelling to East London from Komani.
He said, from the statements given to the police, the vehicle had been rammed by a Nissan NP200, causing it to overturn.
“After that, a group of about 18 males got out and some were closing the road on the other side.
“Then they instructed the guards to come out the vehicle. Everyone, according to the information received, was armed, and apparently they used explosives to take cash from the vehicle,” Mhlakuvana said.
He said the assailants fled in a getaway vehicle.
“We are hoping and asking anyone out there as the community who saw this incident to come forward, give us the information so that we can enrol our investigation,” he said, adding that a manhunt was under way for the culprits.
A security company employee at the scene said three of the robbers had been intercepted in a joint operation with private security company and the police.
“They have been arrested here in Mooiplaas and more cars are being chased,” he said, asking not to be named.
This could not be officially verified by the time of publication.
By 6pm, he said intelligence services were trying to trace the others and that police were still on the scene.
In June 2024, more than 20 armed gangsters, travelling in convoy, also on the N6, near Macleantown, bombed a cash-in-transit vehicle after forcing it off the road, where it overturned.
They then engaged in a gun battle with the injured security guards and also blasted the van doors open.
This is despite beefed-up security efforts and police interventions to curb the spate of robberies in the area.
The heist sent alarm bells ringing in the Cash-In-Transit Association of South Africa (Citasa), whose representatives met provincial Hawks detectives afterwards.
G4S cash solutions also informed the national police ministry of its concerns about the growing number of robberies targeting its vehicles.
The cash security company then offered a R100,000 cash reward in March 2024 for information on such robberies.
Despite this, two of the company’s armoured vehicles were bombed on the same route a month later.
G4S cash solutions has been under new management since August 2025 after it was sold to multinational cash management and cash-transit company, IZI Africa, a subsidiary of the IZI Group.
There have been reports of the company planning to rebrand its trucks to disguise them to avoid cash-in-transit robberies.
Daily Dispatch
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