Eighteen suspects are expected to appear in the Athlone magistrate’s court on Thursday after a minibus taxi security guard was killed and seven people were wounded in a shooting incident in Nyanga.
The accused, aged between 24 and 51, face charges of murder, attempted murder, public violence, discharging a firearm in a municipal area and malicious damage to property.
“Police reports indicate a team comprising police intelligence operatives, the national intervention unit, K9 unit, drone unit and provincial combat team were monitoring movements near the Nyanga taxi rank when shots were exchanged between warring parties,” said police spokesperson Brig Novela Potelwa.
“As a result of the deployment, further shooting was averted. Police have saturated the area and other hotspots with deployments as scores of commuters were left stranded as a result of the shooting.”
Safety and security MMC JP Smith said areas in Nyanga were placed under surveillance after growing concern about “legitimate” security companies registering their businesses to “protect its members from taxi violence”.
“Once our gunfire detection system identified and located shots being fired at the Nyanga taxi rank, resources were dispatched and several people taken into custody, with a large collection of firearms including automatic assault rifles seized,” said Smith.
“These seemed to belong to two different ‘security companies’, again underscoring the extent of organised crime in South Africa.
“The manner and ability for a ‘legitimate’ security company to become registered is concerning — with one of these companies being registered solely with the purpose to ‘protect its members from taxi violence’.”
The city has called on SAPS for more thorough investigations and enforcement relating to the manner in which this sector is managed, Smith added.
“We can and we must do more and I am hopeful that in the spirit of our new collaboration agreement with SAPS we can start stepping further into this role.”
TimesLIVE
0 Comments