Lerato Mbhiza
WHILE giving an update on the crime statistics and successes achieved by the SAPS in responding to serious and violent crimes, Police Minister Bheki Cele cited the recently foiled cash-in-transit heist in Hoedspruit, Limpopo where farmers assisted the police in arresting three suspects while four others were shot and killed.
Cele said, despite the public comments crediting members of the Hoedspruit Farmers Watch for their success in foiling a heist, it was the good working relationship between the police and the community forum that also resulted in the arrest of one of the country’s most wanted criminals.
“We’d like to take this opportunity to appreciate the working relationship with Hoedspruit farm watchers who worked closely with the SAPS in taking down this syndicate.
“Among those arrested was a most wanted suspect, a Mozambican national linked to a murder of a police officer, a spate of hijackings, house and business robberies, and fraud cases.”
The suspect was expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
Cele said in Gauteng, a multidisciplinary team led by the Anti-Kidnapping Task Team rescued an 18-year-old Wits University student from a kidnapping syndicate last Wednesday on 20 September 2023.
The syndicate had been targeting the L G B T Q I + community through a popular dating app and the Police have broken the back of this particular kidnapping syndicate that has so far been linked to over 50 kidnappings, where ransom demands were being made, Cele said.
He said in August in the North West, an intelligence driven operation led to the arrest of seven (7) suspects who kidnapped their victims for ransom-related to municipality tenders.
Cele said the victims were lured to a house to sign a contract/documents relating to a Solar geyser project said to the value of R17 million.
INSIDE POLITICS
