Unsettling trend of metro officers being killed on the job

THE death of a Durban metro police officer after being hit by a taxi during a roadblock in eManzimtoti on Friday comes just four months after a Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) officer was hit and killed by a truck in Estcourt.

At the time, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport preliminary reports indicated that Thokozani Cele, 41, and his colleagues were doing a speed arrest when a truck failed to stop and knocked him down. He died instantly and the truck driver fled the scene.

In January last year, two female Johannesburg metro police officers were killed and two other officers injured when a drunk driver crashed into a roadblock along Witkoppen Road in Paulshof, north of Johannesburg. The driver was arrested.

In February 2017 a Johannesburg metro officer was killed when the driver of a tow truck allegedly knocked him down, while officers were busy with a stop-and-search operation. A 44-year-old driver was arrested.

In February 2016 an RTI officer based in Winklespruit died after being hit by a taxi.

The officer and his colleagues had been conducting operations on the N2 southbound near Umgababa when he allegedly ran out to signal for a taxi to stop.

The taxi failed to stop and struck him. In May of the same year, a 38-yearold Johannesburg metro officer died after he was run over by an alleged drunk driver.

Thokozani Cele and his colleagues were doing a speed arrest when a truck failed to stop and knocked him down