Eastern Cape: KING WILLIAM’S TOWN –Unrelenting efforts by Eastern Cape SAPS over the past week paid off when 1 375 suspects were arrested for various crimes ranging from murder, robberies, assault GBH, other serious crimes and crimes detected as a result of police action (258). Police also recovered 880 mandrax tablets, 42 g of dagga, 5 645 dagga plants, 15 firearms and 331 various assorted rounds of ammunition and 20 vehicles. The arrests and confiscations are indicative of the fact that SAPS is committed to ridding crime in our communities.
One hundred searches were conducted at premises relating to illicit drugs, 396 searches at liquor premises and 26 at Second Hand Goods premises. A total of 3 562 searches were also conducted on vehicles for firearms, dangerous weapons, drugs and suspected stolen stock, to name but a few.
Butterworth Cluster Task Team arrested three women between the ages of 30-45 for selling liquor without a license at three different villages around Centane. Willowvale Police arrested a woman in her mid-30s for selling liquor without a license and two aged 24 and 28 for possession of dagga. The three suspects were arrested during a mop-up operation around villages of Willowvale. All the suspects will appear before the Willowvale Magistrate Court on Monday 27 February 2017. KwaNobuhle Visible policing members pounced on 6 unsuspecting illegal taverns and confiscated over 28 litres of liquor valued R 4 550 and also fined them for contravening the Liquor Act totalling R 7 000. A total of 285 litres of illegal concoction were destroyed from five brewing houses.
As part of the SAPS’ Safer Schools Programme, schools are visited and learners are encouraged to partake in various crime prevention initiatives. School learners from King William’s Town, Mdantsane and Butterworth Clusters gathered at O R Tambo Hall in Zwelitsha for school safety crime awareness. Learners were educated about substance abuse and participated on public speaking and actively debating about drugs at schools and how drugs affect the lives of the learners and those around them. Prizes were given to the winning schools. Xolilizwe Senior Secondary School in Willowvale were crowned as the winners in the poetry competition. Nompendulo High School in Zwelitsha were crowned the first position in Drama and Public Speaking and were also crowned best school in all categories they were participated on.
Police conducted a random search at Zweliwelile Senior Secondary School in Dutywa and seven knives and screwdriver were confiscated from the learners.
The SAPS also welcomed the sentencing of the suspect who killed Constable Handle Mlenga, attached to Cofimvaba SAPS in December 2013. Ntobeko Mci was found guilty on five counts at Mthatha High Court and was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, seven (7) years for attempted murder, 15 years for business robbery, three (3) years for possession of unlicensed firearm and two years for possession of ammunition. The suspect was sentenced on 22 February 2017.
Lt Gen Ntshinga and the Provincial Head: Crime Intelligence, Maj Gen SC Mfazi paid their last respects together with a number of SAPS members at the Official Funeral of the late Const Qwanti attached to Mount Fletcher Crime Intelligence and the community of Moabatsane Area, Mount Fletcher on 25 February 2017. Constable Qwanti succumbed on 10 February 2017 to gunshot wounds sustained whilst on duty and confronting an armed suspect.
“We commend the unrelenting efforts of the members of the SAPS, for the sterling work done. I would like to appeal once more to the communities to become integral cogs of government in the fight against crime, as government alone cannot succeed without their support,” said MEC Weziwe Tikana of the Department of Safety and Liaison.