Mandela caught stealing sweets
One of former president Nelson Mandela’s grandsons, Andile Mandela, is facing possible shoplifting charges after he was allegedly caught on camera stealing a packet of sweets from a grocery store in the Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg.
Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Noxolo Khweza confirmed that police were investigating a case of shoplifting.
“I can confirm that he appeared in the Hillbrow Magistrates’ Court on August 5. I do not have the next [court] date,” Khweza said.
According to a security guard who witnessed the incident, Mandela entered the retail store with a brown bag that contained a laptop.
“When I entered the shop, a camera operator told me to monitor his movements inside because he looked suspicious, but I let him make his way to the aisle where chocolates and sweets are situated. The camera shows him unwrapping the sweets and putting them inside his bag, then going to the till and buying R5 MTN airtime,” the guard said.
When he stopped Mandela at the door, the latter appeared to be nervous when he produced the slip for the airtime.
The alarm at the door beeped and I asked him if there was something he forgot to pay for. He said no and gave me the airtime slip. I then asked to search him and took him away from the view of other customers.
“I found the sweets in the bag and asked him where he got them from. He insisted that he bought the sweets, but when I told him that I was about to get him arrested, he confessed that he took the sweets inside the store because he was hungry.”
The guard said he then told the 29-year-old that if he was indeed hungry, he should have taken bread, not candy.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said the case was not enrolled due to insufficient evidence.
Andile is the youngest son of Nelson Mandela’s son, Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005. Andile could not be reached for comment.
–City Press
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