A man was shot and wounded on Tuesday on the M1 South near Killarney in Johannesburg following a chase from Pretoria, police said.
Police approached a minibus taxi at a Pretoria taxi rank following a commotion, Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said. The vehicle sped off.
“Police officers summoned back-up vehicles, including a chopper.”
When the helicopter tried to bring the van to a halt, it crashed into three police vehicles.
The occupants of the taxi shot at police, who returned fire. When the minibus came to a stop at the Joe Slovo offramp two men got out and tried to run away.
“The driver of the vehicle was shot in the upper leg and the [passenger] managed to run away.”
The passenger was believed to have been the one shooting at police.
Police had his particulars and were searching for him.
The driver would be charged with malicious damage to property and attempted murder. He was taken to hospital under police guard.
It was suspected that the men fled as they may have been involved in several incidents of taxi violence.
The M1 South was closed as dozens of traffic officials, police officers and medics worked on the scene. The police landed their helicopter on the highway. Shortly before 2pm it was still there.
Police arrested 145 people in Soweto over the weekend, police said on Sunday.
Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said most of those arrested were charged with drunken driving.
The other charges included rape, murder, possession of unlicensed firearms, robbery, possession for dagga, drug dealing, shop lifting and malicious damage to property.
“These people were arrested around Lenasia, Lenasia South, Jabulani, Moroka, Dobsonville, Naledi and Protea Glen,” said Makhubela.
They would appear in various Johannesburg courts soon. – Sapa
Tshepo Mosai, 30, Roger Godfrey Moseki, 33, Ndaedzo Isaac Vele, 29 and Nditsheni Daniel Nefolovhodwe, 32
One of four men arrested for the murder of Johannesburg cluster commander Maj-Gen Tirhani Maswanganyi pleaded with a sangoma “to make his case go away”, the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court heard on Friday.
Provincial investigating unit commander Colonel Abednego Shibiri said Nditsheni Daniel Nefolovhodwe sought the services of a sangoma prior to his arrest on June 25.
“We have the transcripts of the phone records. He called the sangoma on the 24th and told him that accused number one [Ndaedzo Isaac Vele] had been arrested and wanted the case to go away,” Shibiri said during the four men’s bail application.
He told the court that Nefolovhodwe had spoken to the sangoma in Venda.
Nefolovhodwe’s lawyer disputed Shibiri’s claims and said the police should have brought the transcript to court.
Shibiri said the evidence was not before the court because the transcription process had not been concluded.
Earlier, the court heard that Vele did not have money and would not abscond if released on bail.
Johann Engelbrecht SC, for Vele, cross-examined Shibiri about the police evidence against his client.
“I have a problem in this matter. You come here to oppose bail in this matter on the basis of the expectation that further evidence will reveal A, B, or C. Where are the cellphones and the iPad [of Maswanganyi]?”
Shibiri said ongoing investigations would disclose the people who took the murdered policeman’s property.
Engelbrecht was not convinced: “Oh please, you don’t know that the further investigation will recover the cellphones and the iPad. You hope that, possibly.”
Shibiri said his hopes were pinned on the investigations currently underway. However, Engelbrecht contended there was no evidence placing his client at the scene of the crime.
Vele, Nefolovhodwe, Tshepo Mosai, and Roger Godfrey Moseki are accused of killing the senior policeman.
Maswanganyi was found dead in a field near Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, near the R101, in June.
His hands and feet were bound. A police patrol found Maswanganyi’s abandoned Isuzu bakkie next to the road.
A police uniform and police identification card were in the bakkie, which prompted a search.
Three of the four accused, including Vele and Nefolovhodwe, were members of the SA National Defence Force.
Engelbrecht said Shibiri’s team had found that Vele could not escape and start afresh in another country.
“His financial position is virtually zero. No money is in the possession of the accused which would enable him to leave and stay out of the country.
“You also confirmed his residential address and found that he has a pregnant girlfriend whom he is planning to marry.”
Shibiri disagreed.
“I am a police officer and in my experience people have left countries without a cent. People also come into countries without a cent,” he said.
“We confirmed about the girlfriend, but I cannot say anything about him wanting to marry her. He [Vele] is the one who knows that.”
Shibiri told the court the evidence linking Vele to the crime was his own confession, admissible in court.
Engelbrecht said Vele would surrender his passport to the police in an attempt to increase his chances for bail.
Shibiri said investigations so far had revealed that Vele had been out of South Africa 16 times.
The bail applications were postponed to November 6 and 7. – Sapa
Two police officers were killed and another seriously wounded in a shoot-out during a police operation in Siqala informal settlement in Philippi, Western Cape police said on Thursday.
Lt-Col Andre Traut said officers searched residences in the area on Wednesday night at around 10pm for people wanted in connection with recent armed robberies in the area.
“Upon entering the dwelling the suspects opened fire at police officers. During a shoot-out with the robbers, one suspect was wounded and arrested and his 9mm firearm confiscated,” he said.
“The wounded police officer is being treated in hospital and is reportedly in a stable condition. The suspect is also being treated in hospital under police guard.”
He said the police had reason to believe more people were involved in the shooting but managed to evade arrest.
Violent crimes against police officers were not taken lightly and the people responsible could regard themselves as “extremely wanted”, Traut said.
“The Western Cape police management would like to express their sincere condolences to the families of the slain members, as well as to their colleagues.
“Our fight against crime will continue in all earnest and we will not be deterred by attacks launched at us,” he said. – Sapa
Mpumalanga’s head of community safety appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of drunk driving and impersonating a police officer, Gauteng police said.
Thulani Sibuyi was granted R1000 bail after appearing in court, said Lt-Col Katlego Mogale.
“He allegedly crashed into another vehicle, and when the police came he allegedly put on his siren and told them he was a police officer, said Mogale.
Democratic Alliance spokesman Anthony Benadie has called on Mpumalanga MEC Vusi Shongwe to act against Sibuyi.
“As the head of the provincial task team implemented to fight drunk driving in the province, the DA believes Sibuyi must lead by example,” said Benadie.
The Mpumalanga department of community safety could not be reached for comment on Monday. – Sapa
Three people were arrested when they were found in possession of livestock in Ngangelizwe, Mthatha, on Thursday, Eastern Cape police said.
The three men, aged between 25 and 30, were arrested in different places and one of them was found in possession of two cows suspected to have been stolen, ” said Lt-Col Mzukisi Fatyela on Friday.
On searching the home of the third man — a traditional healer — police recovered a 9mm pistol and ammunition.
The livestock was reported stolen from Lwandlana village at the Mthatha police station.
They will appear in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court on Monday. – Sapa
The KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman who resigned amid allegations that he had a fake matric certificate has denied his qualification is invalid, The Star reported on Friday.
“It is not true that my certificate is fake,” Colonel Vincent Mdunge was quoted as saying.
“I am currently consulting my legal team and will take this to court.”
He said it would have been impossible for him to serve in the police for 27 years with an invalid certificate.
On Thursday, Colonel Jay Naicker said the allegations against Mdunge surfaced when the criminal and academic records of SA Police Service employees were checked. Mdunge subsequently resigned.
Mdunge told The Star’s sister newspaper Isolezwe he did not quit because of the pending criminal investigation against him. He claimed it was a coincidence that he resigned at the same time that the allegations surfaced.
On Friday, Naicker told Sapa he did not know of Mdunge’s intentions to take the matter to court.
“It’s his decision and he doesn’t have to notify us of it,” said Naicker. – Sapa
According to an analysis of the latest crime stats by the Istitute for Security Studies, the murder rate in Cape Town is almost twice as high as that of Johannesburg.
Lizette Lancaster, a researcher at the Institute, writes: “Between April 2011 and March 2012, police recorded more murders in Cape Town than in Johannesburg and Pretoria combined. This means that, taking population into account, Cape Town residents are 1,8 times more likely to be murdered than Johannesburg residents. Yet this information is potentially misleading because the likelihood of being a crime victim depends in large part on race, gender, age, economic profile and where in a city a person lives.”
For example, almost two-thirds of the Cape Town murders took place in just ten of the 60 police station precincts in the city, according to an analysis of crime hotspots by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). For years, the Coloured area of Mitchells Plain has experienced the highest violence and property crime rates in the country.
Black areas in Cape Town show ‘abnormally high murder rates’
Although surpassed by Coloured (mixed-race) areas regarding general violent crime, black townships in Cape Town showed the highest murder rates. According to Lizette Lancaster, “Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu and Harare remain the most murderous in the peninsula, according to an analysis that takes population size into account. These areas have experienced abnormally high murder rates for more than a decade.”
Similarly, a countrywide analysis of police precinct statistics suggests that income levels matter. Residents in low-income areas are far more likely to be murdered than their middle- and high-income counterparts. Half of South Africa’s murders occurred in only 13% of police precincts (or in 143 out of 1 127).
The focus tends to fall on South Africa’s national murder rate, which is almost five times higher than the global average of 6,9 murders per 100 000 people. However, about 13% of police precincts in South Africa had lower murder rates than this, including affluent areas such as Brooklyn (Pretoria), Garsfontein (Pretoria), Camps Bay, Claremont, Rondebosch (Cape Town), Edenvale and Linden (Gauteng). Over 10% of South African policing precincts – more than 115 stations – experienced no murders, while three in four murders occurred in just a quarter of the country’s police precincts. Suburbs like Sandton, Parkview (Johannesburg), Durban North, Table View and Woodstock (Cape Town) had a murder rate of just under 10 per 100 000 people.
Although murder is often used as the main indicator to support arguments that South Africa is a violent country, it makes up only 2,5% of all violent crime. While there were 16 259 murders in 2012/13, over 600 000 other violent crimes were also reported to the police, including attempted murder, rape, robbery and assault.
Most murder victims are young black men
A vast majority of the murders that take place daily do not make the news. They happen in areas where crime and violence are the norm, and where residents already feel marginalised and forgotten. The majority of murders are neither premeditated nor committed as part of a crime, but occur when an argument leads to physical assault. Research shows that most victims are killed by acquaintances, friends or family members during disputes fuelled by alcohol or drug abuse.
Victimisation surveys, police docket surveys and mortuary surveillance studies reveal that most South African murder victims are young black men. These studies also reveal that most murdered women are killed by their intimate partners, and that men are six times more likely to be killed than women. However, violence affects all South Africans, and the resultant trauma has lasting physical, emotional and often financial consequences.
Involvement of police officers in criminal activities is cause for concern in Gauteng, premier Nomvula Mokonyane said on Friday.
Releasing the 2012/13 provincial crime statistics in Johannesburg, Mokonyane said a number of law enforcement officers were evidently involved in crime.
“A worrisome statistic shows that 18 out of 50 provincial policing precincts were reported as crime-infested dens that recorded police collusion and outright corruption,” she said.
“The Johannesburg central police precinct tops the list with approximately 13,000 criminal cases that were perpetrated by officers in uniform.”
She also revealed that vehicle hijackings in Gauteng had risen in the past financial year.
“Vehicle hijackings have increased by two percent,” Mokonyane told reporters.
She said the country’s most populous province had intensified efforts to counter the hijackings.
“Officers have now shifted focus from vehicle and driver fitness only, but have also included apprehending criminals that use road networks to escape from scenes of crime.”
Increases were also recorded in stock theft, which rose by 5.1 percent.
Robberies at residential premises had also gone up by 3.6 percent.
Mokonyane said robberies at business premises, murder, and motor vehicle theft had diminished in the province. Sexual offences had also declined by 10 percent.
She remained upbeat that crime was under control in Gauteng.
“What is heartening is that the apprehension of [corrupt officers] was not done by a nurse, a doctor or a journalist. It was done by members of the SA Police Service and other law enforcement agents,” the premier said.
“We still have the confidence, as the provincial government, in the capacity of the police to fight crime.”
A bleak picture emerged on Thursday when Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa released the national crime statistics in Pretoria.
The national figures indicate that serious crime such as murder, burglary, aggravated robbery, and hijackings are on the rise.
Mthethwa said the number of murders increased by 0.6 percent in the past financial year. However, it was down 16.6 percent over the past four years, and 27.2 percent over the past nine years.
There was also a 6.5 percent increase in attempted murder in the year under review. This was in contrast to the 16.8 percent decline over the past four years and the 51.7 percent decline over the past nine years. – Sapa
Police handled more than 12,000 public protests during the 2012/2013 financial year, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday.
“Over the past four years, a total of 46,180 incidents were attended to and all were successfully stabilised, with 14,843 arrests effected,” he said at the release of the 2012/2013 crime statistics in Pretoria.
These were made up of 41,104 peaceful and 5076 violent protests by the SA Municipal Workers Union, the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union, protests in De Doorns in the Western Cape, Marikana in the North West, and Zamdela in the Free State.
“During 2012/13 alone, police managed 12,399 public incidents. Of these 10,517 were peaceful and 1882 were violent public protests with a total of 693 various criminal cases reported,” Mthethwa said.
“Most of the cases were reported in the Western Cape and North West provinces. Currently, stability has been restored.” – Sapa
Seven men have been arrested for looting and burning Somali-owned shops in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape police said on Monday.
“We can confirm that seven suspects have since been arrested and charged with public violence. All the suspects are in their late 20s,” said Colonel Sibongile Soci.
They were expected to appear in the New Brighton Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Soci said no new incidents had been reported and the police were closely monitoring the situation.
At least 10 shops in KwaZakhele and New Brighton were attacked.
Brigadier Miranda Mills said two shops were looted and burnt in Ntintili street, and a car parked outside was also set alight at the weekend.
Several other shops were targeted on Sunday following the arrest of a Somali man accused of shooting dead a man outside a shop on Saturday evening.
“According to a witness there was an argument between the suspect and the victim. The [police] arrested the suspect and the firearm used… was recovered,” said Mills.
Police had since moved some foreigners out of the area. – Sapa
Parents are responsible for keeping their children away from criminal activities, the department of community safety said on Sunday.
“Women must also not allow poverty to keep them in abusive environments, which usually leads to their children being sexually abused,” Mpumalanga Community Safety MEC Vusi Shongwe said in a statement.
Shongwe was speaking at a public gathering between residents, the police and other government departments in Barberton on Saturday.
Residents called on Shongwe to strengthen law enforcement to fight crime in the area by bringing in the police’s Tactical Response Team, also called “Amabherethe”.
The residents listed the increasing use of drugs by youth in the area, school pupils loitering during school hours and the rising number of rape and common crimes in the area as some of the problems in the community.
Shongwe said communities should stop promoting crime by buying stolen goods.
“These perpetrators are known in our communities, therefore communities must play a role by informing police and not protect them,” Shongwe said.
The department and the police would embark on a clean-up programme in Barberton.
They would also target non-compliant liquor stores, Shongwe said. – Sapa
Senior police management blocked a planned raid on charities associated with former president Nelson Mandela, the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday.
High level police officials were reportedly worried that a raid on the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, and the Nelson Mandela trust would cause embarrassment.
After this, a letter from police unit the Hawks was sent, including to some Mandela relatives, demanding financial statements.
Chief executive of the children’s fund Sibongile Mkhabela’s spokesman Oupa Ngwenya confirmed a letter was received.
“The account the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund has with Nedbank is public knowledge and has been accounted in the financial statement for the year ended March 31, 2013 and is included as… [a note in] the annual report.”
Ngwenya and Danielle Melville, spokeswoman for the foundation’s chief executive, said the letters had been passed to Mandela’s lawyer Bally Chuene.
The letters reportedly related to charges of fraud, forgery and uttering laid against Mandela’s former attorney Ismail Ayob.
In July, a court application for the removal of George Bizos, Tokyo Sexwale, and Chuene as directors of Harmonieux Investment Holdings and Magnifique Investment Holdings was struck off the court roll.
The application was brought by Mandela’s daughters Makaziwe Mandela and Zenani Mandela-Dlamini.
Mandela is at home recovering after a lengthy stay in hospital.
A man has been sentenced in the Verulam Regional Court to 10 years’ imprisonment for raping his daughter, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Wednesday.
The 64-year-old man pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Monday, Captain Thulani Zwane said.
The man raped his 25-year-old daughter in the Ntaphuka area, Ndwedwe, in July 2011 when she came to visit and ask for grocery money.
He threatened her not to tell anyone, but she reported the matter to police. – Sapa
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A man was shot and wounded on Tuesday on the M1 South near Killarney in Johannesburg following a chase from Pretoria, police said.
