‘Cleaning up every corner’
LAUDIUM: MAJOR ANTICRIME OPERATION AT WEEKEND
‘Criminals are running amok and we are going to stop them’ – police minister.
New Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula at the weekend warned criminals running amok in Laudium, east of Pretoria, that the police are coming for them.
He was on a visit to Laudium Police Station with Gauteng community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Deliwe de Lange and other senior police officers.
There were several drug-related arrests in a huge crime operation in the area on Saturday night. Alcohol was also seized.
“We are going to clean up and we are going to every corner of South Africa,” said Mbalula. “Criminals are running amok and we are going to stop them. We need the support of communities and we are going to mobilise like never before.”
Anticrime activist Yusuf Abramjee said the Laudium police operation was the biggest yet in the area.
“It has disrupted the drug dealers,” said Abramjee. “We are going to see sustained operations in future.
“The community is grateful to Minister Mbalula, the MEC and the police leadership for the increased visibility, which has coincided with the annual Ijtima – the largest gathering of Muslims in Southern Africa taking place in the area.”
Abramjee said the minister was informed of the drug problem on Friday when he visited the Ijtima. He immediately mobilised police resources.
The minister’s spokesperson, Vuyo Mhaga, said Mbalula would also visit other police stations around the country to assess their capacity to deal with crime.
Mbalula visited Soshanguve police station, north of Pretoria, on Sunday, after the death of a police officer, Sergeant Philemon Sibiya. Constable Rasomani Mampuro was also shot and injured.
Two suspects with illegal guns had been arrested, Mbalula said.
The officers were on duty on Good Friday when criminals opened fire on them during a stopand-search operation in the area.
The minister paid his respects to Sibiya’s family and visited Mampuro in Botshilu private hospital in Soshanguve.
Mhaga added Mbalula would also be visiting other police stations to see for himself if they were equipped to respond to the problems communities are facing.
“The minister will look at the capital resources and he will also be dealing with identified hotspots where the drug problem is concerned.”
Drugs were mainly consumed by the young people of South Africa, Mhaga said.
Mbalula wanted responsive, functional police stations. “The life of a law enforcement agent and police officer is valuable to this society. We cannot coexist with criminals,” he said.
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