CAPE TOWN – Police Minister, General Bheki Cele together with the Deputy Minister of Police, Mr Cassel Mathale, the Deputy National Commissioner of Policing, Lieutenant General Fannie Masemola and the Western Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Yolisa Matakata, on Tuesday morning, 10 March 2020, visited the crime scene at Site B in Khayelitsha, Cape Town where a total of seven people were fatally shot and seven victims injured, including a six-year-old child on Sunday morning, 08 March 2020.
The visit comes as the Minister condemned the heinous crime particularly as this happened while the Western Cape’s Operation Lockdown, a ministerial intervention to stabilise the crime situation in the Province, appears to be yielding positive results relative to the thousands of arrests for serious and violent crime, as well as the recovery of scores of illegal firearms and drugs.
To this end, a 32-year-old male suspect has been arrested and is expected to make an appearance in court today (10 March 2020) on charges of murder and attempted murder.
Minister Cele has subsequently urged the multi-disciplinary investigating team to work around the clock and ensure that all suspects are apprehended given the preliminary evidence suggesting that there was more than one suspect.
“Crime prevention and combatting operations such as “Lockdown” in the Western Cape and “O Kae Molao” in Gauteng, must be intensified and become a way of life. Equally, the approach to the recent safer festive season operations must become a benchmark in the South African Police Service where the same approach is adopted to fight crime throughout the year. There is no excuse for dropping the ball after the festive season. Police are constitutionally mandated to prioritise the safety of all citizens at all times, not only over the Festive Season,” emphasized the Minister.
The Minister, in response to the realisation that liquor is a common denominator in the contact crime category including murder, instructed Police to join hands with respective state liquor authorities, and embark on operations that will see illegal liquor outlets shut down and the irresponsible consumption of liquor curbed.
Police Minister visits Khayelitsha following Sunday morning's multiple murders https://t.co/6V40qmInCV#ArriveAlive #Visit #News #Murder @SAPoliceService pic.twitter.com/Seri33YiEX
— Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) March 10, 2020
