By Augustine Ehikioya
In its war against crime, South African Police Service (SAPS) officials have arrested a total of 1,400 crime suspects in Gauteng Province at the weekend.
The arrests by SAPS Gauteng was done in the Province’s five Districts during Operation O Kae Molao.
They were arrested for crimes ranging from murder, house robbery, rape, possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition, possession of drugs/dagga, theft, assault GBH, driving under the influence of alcohol and assault common among others.
This was contained in a statement by Brigadier Brenda Muridili of
South African Police Service, Office of the Provincial Commissioner Gauteng. It was made available to Security Watch Africa, (SWA) on Monday.
It said “The Gauteng weekly disruptive Operation O Kae Molao conducted simultaneously across the five districts – Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Sedibeng and West Rand- has resulted in the arrest of over 1,400 people for various crimes including 40 for driving under the influence of alcohol and over 80 people for contravention of the Immigration Act.
“The Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service in Gauteng, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela on a weekly basis leads a multi-disciplinary team through one of the Districts at a chosen Police station to assist with the stabilization and reduction of crime.
“This past weekend, Lt. Gen. Mawela took the Provincial Operation O Kae Molao to Yeoville/Hillbrow on Friday the 17th of December, 2021 and to Ivory Park on Saturday the 18th of December, 2021. Activities for the operation included, roadblocks, stop and searches, saturation of the townships/suburbs, compliance inspections at liquor outlets, second hand goods dealers and compliance to Disaster Management Act Lockdown Adjusted Level 1 Regulations.”
The statement said the District Commissioners at the other four Districts also conducted their operations at the same time.
“The results of these operations are the arrests of over 1,400 suspects for crimes ranging from murder, house robbery, rape, possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition, possession of drugs/dagga, theft, assault GBH and assault common among others,” it stated.
All the suspects, the statement said, will appear at the various magistrates’ courts from today Monday, 20 December, 2021.