City offers bounty for cop killers
Cape Town The City of Cape Town has offered a R50 000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of police killers.
Western Cape minister of community safety Dan Plato said the reward was a “stern warning” to anyone who considered taking lethal action against an officer in blue.
“There are now an extra 50 000 reasons why you will not get away with it,” Plato said.
“Last year alone 21 police officers were murdered and 645 incidents of attacks on police occurred provincially.
“This is the highest count of police officers attacked and murdered in the country last year.”
He said in the last three years there had been 1 285 attacks on police officers in the province and 50 officers had been killed.
“These statistics are horrendous; the situation is abnormal and cannot be accepted, given residents’ high regard for those brave men and women in blue who work tirelessly to protect and serve us.”
Plato said while the province did not have operational control over the police – this a national government mandate – the Western Cape would always support law enforcement services to ensure better quality of police services.
“Only a select few in our society are responsible for these crimes. We understand that no amount of money can make up for the loss of a life, and no amount of money will provide comfort to the family, friends and colleagues of our safety personnel killed this year,” Plato said.
“It remains my hope, however, that by offering this substantive reward someone, somewhere will come forward and help the police catch the cowardly criminals responsible for these terrible crimes.”
The reward would only apply to accurate information provided on any violent attack which resulted in the death of any SA Police Service officer, as well as the Western Cape Traffic Services. Any information can be reported to the Crime Stop number on 0861-10111.