Twee boewe made a fatal mistake as they tried to rob a policeman with toy guns.
The wakker cop, unaware the guns the thugs were wielding were made of plastic, shot and killed the men when they attacked him on Friday afternoon on Nongi Drive, Philippi East.
This incident happened at the footbridge leading to Mandalay, where a spate of house robberies and attacks on residents have taken place in recent months.
The identity of the officer, who was dressed in his SAPS uniform, is not known.
He had stopped his car at the footbridge, apparently to patrol for skelms, when the duo tried to take his gun.
It is not clear if the officer was alone or if he was with a partner.
Residents, who arrived on the scene shortly after hearing the gunshots, say it was only afterwards that the policeman and other cops arriving on the scene realised the thugs’ weapons were, in fact, fake.
A Mandalay resident says they were shocked to see the two dead bodies, their fake guns lying next to them, but people soon identified the men as skelms who have been targeting residents at the footbridge in recent months.
David Mabandla, 47, says he dreads using the bridge to get to family in Philippi.
“That policeman, who looked to be in his late 30s, had every right to shoot them and defend himself,” he says.
“I saw a bit of a struggle as the men pointed their weapons at the officer.
“He stayed calm and as he was supposed to remove his gun to hand it over, he instead shot both of them.
“They went down, and that was that. The man protected himself. He should be rewarded for taking those robbing pigs off the street.”
The men were declared dead on the scene.
According to Mabandla, the policeman remained on the scene and was later taken away in a police vehicle.
Despite witness accounts and photos of the dead men being circulated, provincial police Sunday indicated they had no record of the incident, and neither did the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).