Masoka Dube

Four Mozambican nationals arrested after being found with stolen vehicles made a brief appearance in court on Friday.

Armando Viraros, 22, Dimo Khoza, 20, Ibraimo Lavindo, 49, and Alfabo Mohammed, 45, were not asked to plead when they appeared in the Nkomazi magistrate's court on four counts of vehicle theft.

Viraros and Khoza were granted R7000 bail each, while Lavindo and Mohammed were remanded in custody after allegations surfaced that a domestic worker was raped during the theft of the vehicles and that they were the main suspects.

Police said the two suspects had allegedly also "injured some people" while hijacking two vehicles.

All four men will appear again on June 26.

Constable Nompilo Qwabe of the Schoemansdal police station said Viraros and Khoza were granted bail because it was established that they were apparently unaware that the vehicles they were driving had been stolen.

Police arrested them on their way back to Mozambique after the vehicle theft unit inspected the vehicles.