STELLALANDER-DELAREYVILLE: Last week the Minister of Police, General Bheki Cele said the decisive approach that is characterised by weekly Operation Shanela across the country is here to stay up until safety is drastically improved in communities.
High density operations were conducted from Monday, 2 to Sunday, 8 October in the Province and yielded success with 569 suspects that were arrested for numerous crimes during 44 operations.
Police deployments were strengthened by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Traffic police, the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Health, security companies and the Community Police Forum (CPF) through the Community in Blue. A total of 66 premises, 3185 persons and 1309 vehicles were searched. 82 arrests were made for drug related offences, 22 for dealing in liquor, 21 for driving under the influence of liquor, 27 for possession of firearms, 20 for possession of ammunition, 26 undocumented suspects who were handed over to the Department of Home Affairs for further processing. In a case reported early Monday morning, 2 October, the police of Schweizer-Reneke were called to attend to a scene of theft on the R506 (Schweizer-Reneke/Delareyville road). On arrival at the scene members found a security company patroller, who indicated that he found four male suspects with a vehicle loaded with copper cables.
Upon inspection of the vehicle it was found that there were two bags with cables as well as an additional three rolls of cables and CCTV cameras on the back of the bakkie to the value of R 90 000. The suspects could not account thereof and the four suspects were immediately arrested. A case of possession of suspected stolen property was opened and investigation was conducted leading to the linkage of a theft of cables that occurred recently in the Delareyville area. Jackson Modisapodi (29), Thabiso Mogorosi (27), Gilbert Tshilo (30) and George Moyo (42) appeared in the Delareyville Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Sannieshof and were remanded in custody.
Their next court appearance is expected to be on Monday, 23 October. A further 151 arrests were made for serious and violent crimes that included six murders, seven for attempted murder, nine for robberies, 107 for assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm and 22 for Gender Based Violence. 18 Suspects were also arrested for illicit mining. During the operations amongst others nine cellular phones, 10 firearms with ammunition, two vehicles, a variety of drugs and precious metals were confiscated.
