Traffic officer robbed of service firearm
A NELSON Mandela Bay traffic officer was robbed of his municipal firearm while changing a tyre on his vehicle on the side of the Perseverance Road between Motherwell and Kwazakhele yesterday morning.
This was the seventh attack on Nelson Mandela Bay law enforcement officers over the past five months.
Three of the attacks were suspected ambushes on police officers and four on municipal traffic officers – two of which were hit-like assassinations outside the officers’ homes.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Dumile Gwavu said the officer, who was alone at the time, had pulled off the road to change the tyre when two men – one armed with a handgun – robbed him.
“They demanded he hand over his gun and valuables.”
Gwavu said they fled in a waiting dark blue VW Citi Golf with no registration plates.
Last month, a traffic officer was robbed outside his Phandle Street, KwaDwesi, home when three gunmen held him up at about 6am while he was getting ready to go to work. The three fled in his vehicle. He did not have a firearm on him at the time of the robbery.
The first attack on a traffic officer took place in May when safety and security directorate officer Mafu Puzi, 42, was shot and killed in front of his New Brighton home. A month later, senior traffic officer Owen Camagu died in a hail of bullets as he was about to enter his KwaDwesi home.
Detectives described both murders as “hit-style assassinations” and have ruled out robbery as a motive as nothing was stolen during the attacks.
In June, gunmen ambushed four police officers in two separate attacks in Kwazakhele.
Only one police firearm was stolen in the ambushes as officers started shooting at the robbers.
Earlier this month, three gunmen ambushed two Kwazakhele police officers when they arrived at a Soweto-on-Sea home, stealing a firearm and several rounds of ammunition.
In all the incidents, the officers had been dispatched by the emergency control room.
Gwavu declined to comment on whether he thought the attacks were linked.