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By Staff Reporter

ONE of South Africa's most wanted bank robbers, Zimbabwean Ferdinand Bongani Mlotshwa has been arrested in Bulawayo.

The arrest comes barely two weeks after fellow gang member Welcome 'Scarface' Mpofu was shot and killed in South Africa after executing a recorded 28 major bank robberies.

Mlotshwa's arrest immediately turned into an extradition battle for South African police who say he holds dual citizenship for both countries.

However, Mlotshwa's lawyers went before a Bulawayo magistrate on Monday to deny he was a South African citizen and oppose any extradition attempts.

Zimbabwean police, responding to an SOS sent by South African detectives ambushed Mlotshwa in his sleep at Bulawayo's Emganwini suburb last Friday, it emerged.

At least 12 detectives from the crack Criminal Investigations Department’s Homicide section led the raid on Mlotshwa's home in an early morning swoop.

Mlotshwa is a member of South Africa's “Hammer Gang” which is linked to South Africa's biggest bank robberies in history. Mlotshwa is wanted over a series of bank robberies which are said to have netted him over R1,7 million.

Mlotshwa was remanded in custody to November 3 to allow Bulawayo magistrate Sibongile Msipa to go through the submissions made by both the State and defence counsels on whether he should be placed on remand..

Mlotshwa's lawyers insist that his arrest and detention was illegal as the warrant of arrest was addressed to officers in South Africa and was also in the Afrikaans language.

“This is in contradiction to the Extradition Act and there are no indications that the South African government want to have my client extradited to that country. There is no prima facie case against him and his arrest is unlawful because the laid down laws were not followed,” Nkululeko Fuzwayo, of Calderwood, Bryce and Hendrie for Mlotshwa said.

South African police say Mlotshwa, in the company of fellow gang members, robbed several banks in Gauteng Province between 11 April 1999 and 13 September last year, stealing over 1, 7 million South African rands.

SA police say they have Mlotshwa's fingerprints linking him to the offence. Other suspects in police custody are Amon Kunene, Thulani alias Pilot Ncube, Martin Ncube alias Busi Dube, Oscar Moyo, Mehluli Ndlovu and Velaphi Mnkuyobane.
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