Gauteng police commissioner Major-General Tommy Mthombeni has revealed that Soweto is battling with high levels of contact crimes, property hijackings and cash-in-transit-inspired ATM bombings.
On Thursday, the recently appointed provincial commissioner launched Operation Shanela at Orlando Stadium ahead of the elections, which he said needed everyone to collaborate for effective policing.
“We are working together with the provincial government on the issue of elections and that is why we must club together our efforts and ensure that we are ready for elections as we do not want to see instability,” he said during a joint operation on the N17 highway in Soweto, where he and his officers in blue, working with other law enforcement agencies, kicked off their operation.
Mthombeni was accompanied by his deputy, Major-General Fred Kekana, and deputy provincial commissioner Crime Detection Major-General Mbuso Khumalo alongside senior officers of SAPS in Gauteng, officials from the Gauteng Community Safety, and CPF members.
Mthombeni also commended the police for acting swiftly in bringing to book six suspects linked to the murder of Kaizer Chiefs player Luke Fleurs.
Fleurs was remembered during a memorial service held at the FNB Stadium on Thursday.
Family, teammates and friends all paid tribute to Fleurs as a warm-hearted, smile-filled man, as well as a supremely talented footballer, who also played for SuperSport United and for South Africa at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Mthombeni said Soweto has an issue of contact crimes, gender-based violence and murder which necessitated yesterday’s operations as a response to the issue of safety in the community.
“The operations are to support the two stations, Orlando and Meadowlands. We know for a fact that there are operational activities which are being carried out within those two policing precincts, but as a province we are saying we are here to also ensure that these operational activities get carried out to ensure that communities feel safe as these precincts are mostly affected by contact crimes, including attempted murder, as well as property-related crimes, including burglaries,” the commissioner aid.
As part of ongoing operations since last week, Mthombeni said they had arrested more than 900 suspects with more than 204 of these being related to GBV-related crimes.
“The operations have resulted in the arrests of more than 900 suspects with 204 of these being related to GBV. As you know this scourge has become a priority. Linked to that as a province, we are committed to removing firearms from unlawful hands. We have since that period managed to recover not less than 500 firearms and 800 ammunition.
“We know also that a prominent case was reported in Honeydew where a player attached to Kaizer Chiefs was shot and killed after his vehicle was hijacked, and we have recovered this vehicle with the help of the community that assisted us,” he said.
He said ATM bombings in Soweto were linked to cash-in transit heists which was why the police were intent on taking guns away from criminals.
“We have seen that ATM bombings are linked to CIT robberies and that is why we want to take away guns from criminals and this is not supposed to happen,” he said.
The Star